THE STORY 0? MALISON 



Py RcUbCIa ^:Ojr] Thrrojt, 



THE .STOPN^ or MADLSON 



i^u i^i:iii^i:N (lOiJ) n iW/^rriLS 



Copyrir-ht, 1900 
By Reuben Gold Thi'/aitoG 



TWocoPXHSRSCEiVEO 

tibrart rr i-, 



51635 



iV' 



S.CONDCOPV. -pi^i,^ 5T0PN^ or MADISON 

^ov^.lo. \^c,o . CHAPTER I. 

Genesis— ISSG-ISSS. 

The immediate ami lasting cftects of the Black Hawk War (1882) were not only the hum- 
bling of the Indians of Northern Illinois and what afterwards became Southern Wisconsin, but 
Efteuts of ^^^^ "^^^^ ad\'ertising of the country through which the contest had been waged. 
Black Hawk During and soon after the war, the newspajjers of the Eastern States were filled 
with descriptions, more or less florid, of the scenic charms of the Rock River Valley, 
the groves and prairies on every hand, the park-like district of the Four Lakes, the Wisconsin 
River highlands, and the picturesque hills and almost impenetrable forests of Western Wisconsin. 
Books and j)amphlets by the score were issued from the press, giving accounts of the newly-dis- 
covered paradise, and soon a tide of immigration set thither. Then necessarily followed, in 
short season, the survey and opening to sale of public lands heretofore reserved, and the pui'chase 
of what hunting grounds were still in possession of Indian tribes. The development of the 
theatre of war thus received a sudden and enormous impetus, so that when the country west of 
Lake ISIichigan was divorced from Michigan Territory in 1836, and reared into the independent 
Territory of Wisconsin, there were about twelve thousand whites within the borders of tlie nas- 
cent commonwealth; and many of the sites of future cities of our State \\ere already occupied 
by agricultural settlers, isolated or in tiny groups. 

CJreen Bay, a straggling French-Canadian settlement, by this time hoary with age, had come 
down from the seventeenth century, maintaining a sickly existence on the fur-trade and the lake 
S ttl ment traffic; Forts Ho\vard (at Green Bay), Winnebago (at Portage), and Crawford (at 
elsewhere in Prairie du Chien) were surrounded by meagre hamlets, chiefly of French Cieoles; 
the lead- mining region in the southwest, although sparsely settled, contained tla; 
bulk of the population, with Mineral Point as its center — a village having at the time an ap- 
parently brighter prospect than the new settlement at the mouth of Jlilwaukee River; there were 
a few notches carved, at wide inter^'als, from the gloomy forest bordering the western shore of 
Lake Michigan; but outside of the settlements just enumerated, Wisconsin was practically unin- 
habited by the whites. Here and there was to be found an Indian trader, the Yankee successor 
of the courier de hois of the old Frencli regime, or some exceptionally adventurous farmer; but 
their far-separated cabins only emphasized the density of the wilderness, through which roamed 
untrammeled the shiftless, gipsy-like aborigines — the comparatively harmless Chippewas, 
Menomonees, Pottawatomies, and Winnebagoes. 

In the summer of 183G there were, so far as is now known, but five white men residing 
\vithin the region comprised in the present county of Dane: Ebenezer Brigham, the original 
Dane county settler, at the East Blue Mound; Eben Peck, who lived with Brigham, boarding the 
in 183(i. latter and his farming and lead-mining hands, and entertaining chance travelers 

along the military highway between Forts Crawford and Winnebago; Berry Haney, a ranchman 
squatting on the military road at what is now Cross Plains; a Frenchman named Olivier Armel, 
w'ho maintained a temporary trading shanty, half brush and half canvas, near what we call 
Johnson street, on the wooded isthmus between Lakes Monona and Mendota; and Abel Rasdall, 



THE STORY OF MADISON. 



an Indian trader, whose lonely cabin was on the eastern shore of Lake Kegonsa, about half a mile 
nDitli of its outlet. A French half-breed trader, Michel St. Cyr, lived on the bank of Lake Mendota 
at wluit aic today known as Livesey's Springs, three-fourths of a mile north of Pheasant Branch. 
.Tuly 4. the Territorial government was organized, > with Henry Dodge as governor. The 
first Territorial legislature convened October 25 in the newly- platted village of Belmont, at Platte 
Miuiison chosen Mounds, in what is now La Fayette county. The two houses met in a story-and- 
as the capital. a-half frame building, battlement- fronted; the highway which it faced bristled 
with stumps, while lead-miners' shafts and prospectors' holes thickly dimpled the shanty neigh- 
l)()rhood.'- At this session, Dane county was set off, among eleven others; and the Territorial 




Ml.l.l l.\()-l'LA('E OF FIRST TEKKITOKI A L l.Dli ISLATIKI'; 
At Belmont. Iowa County, October 2.5, 18.30. Now in use as a barn. 

capital was established at Madison — then a town on paper. A month had been spent in skirmishing 
on the capital location question, the principal contestants being JMil-naukee, Racine, Koshko- 
nong, City of the Second Lake, City of the Four Lakes, Madison, Fond du Lac, Pern, Wisconsin 
City, Portage, Helena, Belmont, Mineral Point, Platteville, Cassville, Belleview, and Dubuque; 
and it was not until Xovember 24 that the act of e.stablishinent was passed. Mixdison (so named 
from James IMadison, then president of the United States) was .selected among the many eager 
applicants, because its choice was in the nature of a compromise Itetween the contlicting interests 

what is now ^linnesdta, Iowa, and a considerable region still farther 



' The Territory then euilir 
stward. 

■-'The Imildint;- still stanils, 



in use as a barn, Ijiit the village itself has almost faded from siglit. 



GENESIS. 



of Green Bay and the mining country; because it was midway between the settlements on the 
Mississipf)i River and on Lake Michigan, and would thus assist in developing the interior; because 
of the natural beauty of the site ^ — but chiefly because James Duane Doty, who had just retired 
from the judgeship of the Wisconsin division of Michigan Territory, had, in connection with 
Stevens T. Mason, then governor of Michigan, purchased a wild tract of 1261 acres, of which the 
present Capitol Park is the center, and fought for the supremacy of their projected town with 
most remarkable tenacity. '^ Madison city lots are said to have been freely distributed among 
members, their friends, and others supposed to possess influence with them. 

It was stipulated in the act, that the legislature should meet in Burlington (now in Iowa) 
until March 1, 18.39, unless the public building at Madi.son, which was provided for, should sooner 
be completed. James D. Doty, John F. O'Neill, and Augustus A. Bird were chosen building 
commissioners. 

Moses M. Strong commenced in February to plat the town site in the neighborhood of the 
Capitol Park, at a time when the ground was covered quite deep with snow. He was assisted in 
Tlu' citv '^'"^' ^^'ork by John Catlin, who had, a few months iirevious, been appointed post- 

suivtyeii. master of the embryo city. ^ Catlin employed the half-breed St. Cyr to erect a 

log house f<n- him on the sit« of the present postoffice, north corner Miftlin street and Wisconsin 
avenue. The body of the structure was put together in February — the first attempt to get a 
permanent building here — but it was not roofed and finished until siimuier. 

' The soldiers and militiamen who, in 1832, painfully trudged through the broad marshes \\hich in 
places abut our lakes, were incliued to scoff at the beauties of the proposed capital. In his ITialorij of tlic 
Black l[(twk War^ published in 1834, J. A. Wakefield, a militiaman, gives this description of the Foui- I^akes 
eouutry, which is amusing in the light of present conditions: 

"Here it may not be uninteresting to the reader to give a small outline of these lakes. From a descrip- 
tion of the eouutry, a person would very naturally suppose that those lakes were as little pleasing to the eye 
of the traveler as the country is. But not so. I think thej' are the most beautiful bodies of water I ever 
saw. The first one that we came to, was about ten miles in circumference, and the water as clear as crystal. 
The earth sloped back in a gradual rise; the bottom of the lake appeared to be entirely covered with white 
pelililes, and no appearance of its being the least swampy. The second one that we came to ajipeared to be 
nuich larger. It nuist have been twenty miles in circumference. The groun<i rose very high all round; ami 
the heaviest kind of timber grew close to the water's edge. If these lakes were anywhere else except in the 
country they are, they would be considered among the wonders of the world. But the counlnj they are sit- 
uated in, is not fit for any cimlized nation of peo})le to inhabit. It appears that the Almighty intended it for 
the children of the foi ext. The other two lakes \\e did not get close enough to, for me to give a description of 
theui; but those who saw them stated that they were very nuudi like the others." 

= The laiuls in the vicinity were first surveyed for the government, iu D^^eember, 1S34, by Orson Lyon, 
deputy U. S. surveyor. In the summer or autunni of 183.5, William B. Slaughter entered the tract oocuined 
by St. Cyr, at Livesey's Springs, and December 29 conveyed an interest therein to Judge Doty, who had it 
surveyed and platted (probably iu June, 1836) for a projected city which he styled "City of the Four Lakes;" 
this he entered in competition for the capital, along with his proposed city of Madison, on the isthnuis — 
thus having two strings to his bow. When Madison seemed the favorite of the two, he ccntcrt'd his fight 
on the latter, and the City of the Four Lakes never developed beyond tlie i)apcr stage. .As will l)e seen 
below, Madison was not actually platted uutil February, 1S37. 

Another paper city of the neighborhood, also an aspirant for the prize of the capital, was the "City of 
the Second Lake." The Milwaukee Advertiser, of July 21, 1836, says this name is a "somewhat lengthy 
cognomen of a new to«ii that is aljout lieing laid off in the interior of our Territory." The Advertiser says 
the proposed city is " beautifully situated upon the site of an ancient Winnebago village at the outlet of the 
second of the far-famed Four Lakes. Judging from its position upon the map, we should say that the da.y 
is not far distant when this will be no inconsiderable place of business. It is on a direct line from this city 
to Cassville, and about equidistant between Peckatonica and Winnebago Portage; surrounded liy a healthy 
and rich farming country, and may soon be the seat of justice of a county, and who knows but of a State." 

= The park itself was surveyed in the summer of 1837, by Frankiu Hathaway (now of Chicago), a 
nephew of Joshua Hathaway, of Milwaukee. In a letter to the writer, he thus <lescribes Madison, as he 
then found it: "The ground between the third and fourth lakes was covered with a moderately heavy 
growth of timber, and an undergrowth of hazel and other bushe.s, quite dense in some places." 



THE STORY OF MADLSOX. 



On their way home from the Belmout session, which had adjourued ou December 9, several 
of the uortlierii members of the legislature stopped at the Blue Mound and informed landlord 
. . , ,. ,, Peck of the selection of Madison as the Capital. Thereupon Peck conceived the 

Peck family; the idea of opening a house of entertainment for the accommodation of visitors to 
i> ( we lug. ^j^^^ 2:>roposed seat of government, and of the workmen whom he heard were soon 
to be sent out to erect the public building. With that end in view, he purchased some lots on 
which to build his prospective tavern, and in March sent ou two Frenchmen to raise the house, 
the first inhabited building in Madison. April 15, 1837, Peck, with his wife Koseline, and their 
two-year old boy, Victor E., arri\ed on the scene, the pioneer white family at the Capital. ' This 
primitive tavern, which was practically three log-cabins united, was styled the Madison House, 
and stood upon lot 6, block 107 (on the southwest side of Butler street), until, oUl and crumb- 
ling, it was (1857) torn down to make room for a more modern building. 



On the morning of 
missioner Bird arrived 
Capitol build- thirty- six 
ers arrive. -mkI toilsome 

days, through rain and 
having had to ford or swim 
In this party was Josiah 
five children, the second 
Pierces had been brought 
mechanics, and for that 
boarding house on the 
son streets, a few lots 
In this establishment the 
were accommodated, 
tronized by the overflow, 
daughters, Ehoda and 
was the second school 
ment. ' The corner stone 
July 4, "with appro- 
by Doty and a few Terii- 
On September 6, came 
their seven children, 
of A. A., and 
soon after intro- 
children to the colonists. 



Early 
faiiiilie 



.lune 10, Building Com- 
from Milwaukee, with 
workmen, after a dreary 
overland journey of ten 
mud, with no roads, and 
the intervening rivers. -^ 
Pierce, with his wife and 
family in the i)lace. The 
by Bird to cook for the 
pui'pose they erected a log 
corner of Butler and Wil- 
southeast of the Pecks, 
majjority of the workmen 
I'cck"s tavern being pa- 
I'ierce had two grown-up 
^larcia by name; Khoda 
niistress of the settle- 
of the Capitol was laid 
priate toasts and speeches' ' 
torial officials. 
John Stoner and wife, with 
Pro.sper B. Bird, brother 
one of his original party, 
duced his wife and three 
A. A. Bird biought out his wife and six children to the scene of action, 




II HS. ROSELINE PECK 

First settler of Madison. 

Talioii in 1S74. in lier I16lh yea 



late in December or early in January. On Septendier 14 had occurred at the Madison House the 
first white birtli on the isthmus — Wisconsiana Victoria Peck, now the widow of Nels W. Wheeler, 
of Baraboo. A little later, James Madison Stoner made his appearance, the first white boy born 



'Mrs. Peck now lives at Baraboo, in her ninety-second year. Her son, Victor E., is manager of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Hotel at West Madison. Ebeu Peek started overland to California 
in 184.5, and is supposed to have been killed by Indians on the plains. 

' With Bird's party came Darwin Clark, as one of the carpenters; he afterwards taught the village 
si-hool. The late Simeon Mills, long prominently identified with educational interests in Madison, arrived 
in the afternoon of the same day, having walked out of Chicago, via Janesville and Winneqiiah. Mills 
began serving as deputy postmaster on the fourth of July, eonducting the office in connection with a gen- 
eral store which he had opened upon his arrival. Mr. Clark died February 12, 1899. 

^ The Pierce family reiuaiued in Madison hut two years, and then moved to Green county. 




THE FIKST HOUSE IX MADISON 

Built by the Pecks in 1837, to accommodate the builtlei-s of the Territorial Capitol. 

From pliotograph of a painting based on memory of old residents. 



THE STOKY OF MADISOX. 



The first 
winter. 



ill the settlement. The families of Peck, Stoner, Prosper B. Bird, and A. A. Bird, Isaac H. 
Palmer and wife, the few workmen on the Capitol who had not retnnied to Milwaukee, two or 
three shop-keepers and oflflcials, the little cluster of families at the Blue Mounds, the Haney 
household at Cross Plains, and perhaps three or four widely-separated Indian traders, constituted 
the entire white population of Dane county during the winter of 1837-38. 

The little colony in Madison did not lack for amusement during this period, despite the phys- 
ical barriers between it and the civilized world to the far East. IMrs. Peck has gi\en us, in 
Durrie's History of Madison, a lively account of the dances, euchre parties, turtle-soup suppers, 
etc., with which the settlers whiled away the first winter in the Pour- Lakes wilder- 
ness. She and her brother-in-law, Luther Peck, both appear to ha^■e been excellent 
violinists, and tlie puncheon tloors of the Madison House were worn smooth with semi-weekly 
hops, in which •' N'irginia 
constituted the chief num- 
programmes. Any who 
their mysteries, ])re\'ious 
liged to submit to instruc- 
duties of frontier citizen- 
from Milwaukee, Fort 
Mineral Point were fre- 
peared hugely to enjoy 
cousin's sylvan Capital. 

The first popular sub- 
son was for the hiring of 
The first person of Miss 
school. Aztalan, who 

salary of two dollars, one- 
for board. On :March 1, 
cil in llic front end of 
dwelling-house, on lot 5, 
King and Clymer streets, 
eery store. In these lim- 
in the thicket, two blocks 
houses, she asseml)led her 
fifteen children. Tlie 
with the bark on, roughly- 
aiiger holes serving as leg> 




reel" and "nionie-musk" 
bers of the impromptu 
had not l)een initiated into 
to "settling,'' were ob- 
tions, as one of the prime 
ship. ( )verland travelers 
Winnebago, Galena, and 
iiuently present, and ap- 
tlie gay society at Wis- 




<» 



A 

scription raised in Madi- 
a school-teacher, in the 
Louisa M. Brayton, of 
was engaged at a weekly 
half ol' wliicli she siient 
ls;)S, her school \vasoi)en- 
Isaac II. Palmer's log 
block 10."), south corner of 
the site of Findlay's gro- 
ited ([uarters, nearly hid 
a "ft' a y f r o m t h e o t h e r 
little tlock of a dozen or 
l)enches were of oak slabs 
whittled pegs driven into 
With a chair fur the teaclici', this outfit completed tlie equipment of 
Madison's first temple of learning. The teacher was a young woman of dignified presence, and 
of a firm but sweet disposition. The curriculum, howexcr, was as crude as the surroundings. 
Only the merest rudiments of education were aimed at in the backwoods schools of those days; 
they lacked appliances and proper text-books, there was no well-defined system of district gov- 
ernment, no school-fund, and the county tieasury was often barren. The teachers were, as a rule, 
tho.se young men and women in the pioneer families who were iudiued with an ambitious spirit 
and chanced to understand "the three R's" a trifle bette}' than their fellow.s. The professionally- 
educated schoolmaster was not then abroad — he did not reach Madison until a dozen or more 
years later. There are probably few schools today, in the most inaccessible portions of our 
country, so meagerly equipped as the majority of those s<Mttered at wide intervals throughout 
the Northwest, in the j)eriod of which we treat. 



Mi;s. Loris.\ Ji. s.\wix 

Miss Brayton, taught the tirst scl 

Madison, Marcli, 1S3.S. 
; pii-tiin' was VMiou in lier 6iUh yt-i 



EAKLY ANNALS OF THE TOWN. 



CHAPTER II. 



Early Annals of the Town — ISSS-lSJ^o. 



Tlie town of !l\[;idi.son was a plant of slow growth. In the sununer of 18.38, the census re- 
vealed the presence in the settlement of only sixty-two jieople, and it is recorded ^ that there 
rvmditiou were at that time "not more than a dozen houses, built and in process of erection, 
in 1838. counting every cabin and shanty within three miles of the Capitol; " while Indian 

wigwams were frequently erected within sight of the doors. For the matter of that, we can 
still — sixty-one years later (1899), with a population of nearly 20,000 — frequeutly see Winne- 
bago tepees on the shores of Lakes Mendotaand Monona; especially upon the latter, a mile-and-a- 
half from the Capitol. 

The little village was charmingly situated in the primeval wilderness. In 1885, the late 
Jerome E. Brigham — a nephew of the Blue Mounds pioneer, Ebenezer, and himself one of 
A svlvan ^ladison's early teachers — thus wrote of the Madison of his young mauhood: 

Oiipital. "Those who only know of Madison, now, have but a feeble conception of its won- 



derful and fasci- 
the beginning. At 
our Capital [1839] 
a well-kept lawn, 
white-oak and 
with a fragrant 
all about the lake 
no growth of nn- 
thicket such as 
when the semi-an- 
to do the duty of 
mower; but the 
(fuite u n i n t er- 
the surface rose 
knolls on either 
no fence about the 
of the present 




nating beauty ^^ 
the time I first saw 
it had the look of 
shaded by fine 
burr- oak trees, 
fringeof red cedar 
shores. There was 
d e r b r u s h a n d 
sprung up soon, 
nual fires ceased 
the rake and 
eye had a stretch 
rupted, except as 
in beautiful green 
lake. There was 
square, and none 
trees, I think. If 
The lakes then 



TUKVIl.LE'S ISEACH, LAKH MO.NO.VA 

there were black-oaks among them, they fail to remain in the picture I recall 
lay iu natural silver beauty, prettily framed in pebbly beach, now lost by the dam on Mendota 
and the railways on Monona. Madison iu 1839 was wonderfully beautiful — not rugged or ro- 
mantic, which is ordiuarily picturesque, but for simple, quiet beauty, unequalled by anything 
I remember." 

In the early annals of this peaceful village in the undulating oak grove between Mendota 
and Monona, — surrounded on every hand by far-stretching lakes and marshes, and thus in a 
measure isolated from her rural neighbors, — the historian finds little of stirring interest: and that 



Robert L. Ream's reminiscences, iu Durrie's History of Mudimn (Madison, 1874), p. 102. 



THE STORY OF MADISON. 



little almost always the reflex of the legislature, which annually came and went with much bustle 
and sometimes brawl, leaving behind a quiet wake in which the denizens of the hamlet might 
meditate at will. 

Early in the year 18.38, Commissioner Bird had stopped "day work" on the Capitol, and 
the contract for finishing the structure was (April 17) awarded to James Morrison. The respec- 
tive accounts of Bird and Morrison with the Territory, afterwards became a fruitful source of 
litigation and legislative claims, extending throughout the entire Territorial i^eriod. 

During the summer, Bird and Morrison erected the American Hotel, on the site where the 
First National bank now stands — an establishment which, under a succession of landlords, long 
made a luminous figure in the history of Madison. 

November 26, the legislative as.seinbly first met here. But, as only fifty boarders could be 
jirovided for in the place, it was proposed to adjourn to Milwaukee; that village, however, could 
Entertainiuii- "^^ promise better accommodations, so a recess was taken until January 21 ( 1839), 
the legishiture. when the situation was somewhat improved. Says Mr. Beam: ^ " [With the 
session] came crowds of people. The public houses were literally crammed — shake-downs were 
looked upon as a luxury, and lucky wiis the guest considered whose good fortune it was to rest 
liis ^\■eary limbs on a straw or hay mattre.ss. * * * We had then no theatres or any places 
of amusement, and the long winter evenings were spent iu playing various games of cards, 
checkers, and backgammon. Dancing was also much in vogue. Col. [James] Maxwell [member 
of council from Rock and Walworth] was very gay, and discoursed sweet music on the flute, and 
Ben. C. Eastman [one of the clerks] was an expert violinist. They two furnished the music for 
many a French four, cotillion, Virginia reel, and jig, that took place on the puncheon floors of 
the old log cabins [forming the Madison House] . * '* * Want of ceremony, fine dress, classic 
music, and other evidences of present society life, never deterred us from enjoying ourselves those 
long winter evenings.'' 

But Madison did not entirely give itself up to the business of boarding and amusing the leg- 
islature, although this was long the leading industry. A keen desire to educate the children of 
Dane county ^^^® settlement was early manifest, and aroused a laudable public sentiment. In 
orgaiii/,c(l. ti^g spring of 1839, Dane county wius organized for judicial purposes. The Terri- 
torial school code had been somewhat modified by the legislature of that year. " The rate-bill 
system of taxation, pi-eviously in existence, was repealed, and a tax on the whole county for 
building school-houses and supporting schools was provided for. " '^ With the county organiza- 
tion came an immediate iufiux of population, and this fiict, together with the improvement in the 
code, gave rise to a revival of interest in educational matters, which had lain dormant iu Madison 
since the close of Miss Brayton's school. The number of children had materially increased, as 
many of the new settlers were accompanied by their families. There wei'e now in Madison, fully 
a score of proper age for elemental instruction. 

The taxable value of property was at a low ebb, and the fund accruing from the sale of school 
lands could not be made available until the organization of a State government, so that for many 
The first years the public school moneys had necessarily to be supplemented by rate-bills, 

school-house, even to itay the beggarly salaries then in vogue among district pedagogues. But 
the spirit of local pride always induced the pioneer residents of the infant caijital to be generous, 
even beyond their means. W^ith large hopes of the future, and a desire not to be outdone else- 
where, a movement to build a school-house was successfully carried thi'ough in April. Governor 
Doty gave permission to the settlers to use for the purpose lot 4, block 98, on the north corner of 
Pinckney and Dayton streets; and there, out in the "brush," was erected, in time for the sum- 



' Burrie's Madlfon, p. 120. ^ HMory of Dane County, pp. 140, 141. 



EARLY ANNALS OF THE TOWN. 



11 



mer term, the first building constructed iu Madison for school purposes. It would be denominated 
a cabin in these days, but iu those was thought to be an eminently creditable affair, having cost 
about $70, the amount being raised by popular subscription. 

During the first term, it was unplastered and but ill glazed. A few rough benches were put 
in — slabs from the saw mill on Lake Mendota, with the flat side uppermost, and supported on 
pegs. In that period, sawed lumber and "store" furniture were scarce articles, and in many a 
Madison house the seats were but rough, three-legged stools. The first teacher in this ijublic 
school was Ehoda Pierce (summer term of 1839); then came Edgar S. Searle, for the winter of 
1839-40; among others who followed, were E. M. Williamson, Dr. Timothy Wilcox, Clarissa R. 
Pierce, Lucia A. Smith, Darwin Clark, Rev. A. M. Badger, Benjamin Holt, David H. Wright, 
and Matilda A. Smedley — iMiss Smedley being the last teacher to occupy the building. The 
''Little Brick" — costing about $1,100, and much admired by Madisonians of that period, was 
erected in 1815, and continued in use as a school-house until 1887, when it was torn down to 
make room for the new Third Ward school. 
The school -house 



other public pur- 

„. , band prac- 

Sunday seasons, two 

school. ™ , „ , 

The first 

established with- 
of the early Congi'e- 
alluding to this lat- 
scribes the rude 
rods northwest of the 
brush, through which 
led, was the pri mi- 
building rudely con- 
seated; almo.st 18x22 
and having only one 
Here the first Sun- 
son was started l)y a 
nent among whom 
rison." 

The entire pop- 
at the close of 1839 




was often used for 
poses. Wood's brass 
ticed there for a few 
or three timesa week. 
Sunday school was 
in its walls. One 
gational pastors, in 
ter fact, thus de- 
structure: "A few 
park, in a thicket of 
a few foot-paths only 
tive school house, a 
structed and poorly 
feet uponthe ground, 
low story. * * * 
day school in Madi- 
t'ew ladies, promi- 
was j\Irs. James jMoi-- 



ulation of the village 
was but 116, and 



RESIDENCE OF (iOVKUXoit IH)TV 
Still standing (ISil'j) near corner of Doty and Pinclsuey streets. 

the school tax raised in the county that year amounted only to $393. 13. 

On the first Monday in ISIay, 1810, Clarissa R. Pierce opened a "select school for young 
misses," at $3 per quarter, iu a little frame building within the limits of the Capitol park; and 
A select school there continued her institution for nearly two years. This structure had origi- 
for misses. nally been put up as a tool-house and ofiice for Contractor Morrison, while the 

Capitol was being erected. It was an uncouth, one-story box, about 12x16 feet on the ground, 
with low ceiling, and situated some 200 feet in front of where the State Bank is now located. For 
several reasons, it did duty as a school-house, private and public, and for a time was the place 
where the village debating club was wont to assemble in the evenings and wisely discuss ciuestions 
that had puzzled sages since the time of Solomon — the forum 

"Where village statesmen talked with looks profound." 



12 THE STOKY OF :\rAl)ISON. 



Subsequently, Governor Doty had the old tool-house moved to the spot on Pinckney street 
where Owen's plumbing establishment is now situated. This site was then a part of the gov- 
\ not'iblt" tool ernor's garden; the executive mansion of that period can still be seen on Doty 
shell. .street, just around the corner below, its humble proportions quite lost in the 

shadows of the neighboring three-story bricks. Charles Doty, the governor's son and private 
secretary, used the former tool-shed for his office. In 1849, the first revisers of the statutes met 
there and accomplished their important task. Then Abraham Ogden, J. P., became its occu- 
pant, and many a village "cow ca.se'' was therein adjudicated. 

December 2.5, 1841, the county school commissioners set apart the town of Madison as a 
.separate school district, denominating it "District No. 1, Town of Madison." This was the first 
M-idison a official action taken in Dane county relative to the organization of schools, under 

si-hool district. the Territorial laws. Heretofore, public education here had been quite inform- 
ally carried on, in i^art by county tax and in part by private subscription, with no well-defined 
reo-ulations. In 1840, the legislature had pas.sed an act designed to secure the more adequate 
support and government of the schools. Thereafter there was more system, but it was not until 
twenty years later that Madison teachers began to receive anything approaching adequate com- 
pensation, in regular payments. This was owing chiefly to tlic poverty of the settlers, who were 
unable to pay heavy taxes. 

The settlement made slow progress, in point of population. The censu.s, in 1842, revealed 
the presence of but 172 people, a gain of 26 in two years; in 1844 there were only 216 Madiso- 
Secondarv nians. Xevertheless, the little band of pioneers was full of hope, and sought 

education*. courageou.sly to push affairs, as though the Capital were growing apace. Educa- 

tion seems ever to have been uppermost in the public mind, in those struggling days. The gra<le 
was still necessarily low in the public school, and some of the leading men — such as John Catlin, 
Simeon Mills, David Brigham, and James Morrison — organized the Madison Select Female 
School (May, 1842). 

David Brigham, who had himself been one of the instructional corps in Harvard College, 
was delegated to choo.se a preceptress. He accordingly engaged Mrs. Maria M. Gay, of 3Iari- 
etta, Ohio — a superior teacher and cultured woman, and eminently well qualified successfully to 
conduct such a school under more favorable circumstances. But ^Madison was too ambitious: it 
could not then support an institution of this character. Her terms were too high for those early 
(lays in the backwoods; not meeting with sufficient encouragement she was obliged, after a year's 
trial, to abandon the enterprise. Five years later, the attempt was renewed in the Madison 
Female Academy, which had a successful career (in a building on the site of the present high 
-school) from 1847 to lsr>4, being succeeded l>y the city high school. 



MADISON AS A VILLAGE 13 



CHAPTER III. 
Madisun as a Village — 18-^0- ISoO. 

Let us take a glimpsse of Madison in the suinmei- of 1840, wlum the settlement was nine years 
old. By act of legislatui'e approved February 3, it had been incorporated as a village. The 
Causes of population had taken solue\^■hat of a jump during the two preceding years, being 

slow growth, now 626. Yet at no time in Territorial days did Madison make the progress which 
most other Western villages were making, when advantageously situated. This was owing to 
several reasons: (1) The efforts being annually made to remove the Capital to some other place, 
generally to Milwaukee; (2) the spirit of bitterness which was thereby engendered between Mad- 
ison and the metropolis; (3) the record of three distinct village plats. The Capital-removal 
agitation was not quieted for many years, — one occasionally hears of it even in our day, — and it 
took a long time to secure legal decisions settling the question of titles. At the period we are 
considering, three-fourths of the village site was covered by trees and hazel-brush, and evei'y- 
thing was in a crude condition. The village hogs slept at night in the cellars of the Capitol, and 
the park itself was a mere jungle of wild grass, scrub oak, and bushes. The habits of the set- 
tlers were simple; their wants were easily satisfied; very little money was in circulation; the 
county and Teriitory paid its ofticials' salaries and other dues in scrip, which was seldom nego- 
tiable at par; social life was purely democratic in its character, ^ doors and windows were unfast- 
ened at night, because there was but little worth stealing, and thieves and tramps had not yet 
been attracted hither. Postage was 25 cents for a single sheet, hence there w;is little correspond- 
ence with friends left at home in the East. The journey to Madison from Xew York State, or 
New England, was a two weeks' laborious trip, by lake to Milwaukee, thence by foot oi stage 
nearly a hundred miles across the country. The ^Visconsin Capital was a primitive backwoods 
hamlet, far removed from the centers of civilization, and as yet had not materially changed the 
aspect of nature on the int«rlacine i.sthmus. "Not over half a dozen houses had been erected 
westward or northward of the Capitol square; and the forest northcastwaid remained unbroken 
below" where is now Flom's Hotel.- 

As already intimated, the sessions of the Territorial legislatui-e were the events of the year 
at Madison, and attracted prominent men from all quarters of Wisconsin. The crude hotels were 
The Territorial filled each winter with legislators, lobbyists, and visiting politicians. Old set- 
legislature, tiers delight to rehearse tales of what was done and said at these annual gather- 
ings of the claus — it was not until 1882 that the sessions were made biennial. The humors of 
the day were often uncouth. There Wixs a deal of horse-play, hard-drinking and ijrofanity, and 

' Says a pioneer in DurHc, p. 165: " Social gatherings, from their freedom and intellectual cast, left little 
to desire. Fun and frolic was the chief characteristic, and more of it in a week than ten years now witness. 
* * * It was a golden era, which once jiassed will never return." One must take reminiscences of this 
sort, with a grain of allowance; as men advance in years, the times of their youth inevitably apijear to be 
the "good old times," in sad contrast with the present; it has always been thus, since the earth was young. 
No doubt there was far less conventionality in the pioneer days, which to many may seem a better order of 
things; but there was probably no more real enjoyment at the time, among the pioneei-s, than among their 
descendants — very likely, life in Madison was less worth living. 

^ Durrie, p. 1 70. 



14 



THE STORY OF MADISOX. 



occasioually a personal encounter during the beat of discussion; but an under-current of good- 
nature was generally observable, and strong attachments between the leaders wei-e more frequently 
noticeable than feuds. Dancing and miscellaneous merry-making were the order of the times; 
and although there was a dearth of womankind in these Madison seasons, society at the Capital 
was thought to be fashionable. Even when the legislature was not in session, Madison remained 
the social and political center of the Territory, and travelers between the outlying settlements on 
the shores of the Mississippi, and Lake Michigan or Green Bay, were wont to tarry here upon 
their way. Several of them have left us, in journals and in letters, pleasing descriptions of their 
reception by the good-natured inhabitants, and the impressions made on them by the natural 
attractions of this beauty-spot. 

The old Territorial legislature had much to do, winter by winter, in carving out new counties; 
molding in detail the statutory laws; making political apportionments after each new census, in 



a domain rapidly filling up 
population — and now and 
(piancls with the Territo- 
thc (luality of legislation 
vailed a healthy politu 
acrimony was sometmn's 
killing in the council cliam 
of Brown county, b\ hl>^ 
Vineyard, of Grant (Feb 
great sensation of Ten it o 
Wisconsin an unein ial)le 
try. 

The village trustees had 
three weeks before theypro- 
The water- lease the by- 




MILL RACE, 



)Lri GRIST Mil 



with a robust American 
then there were unfortunate 
rial governor. As a whole, 
^^as good, and there pre- 
toue, although personal 
much in evidence. The 
..■r, of Charles C. P. Arndt, 
ifllow member, James E. 
ruary 11, 1842), was the 
rial day.s, and gained for 
notoriety all over the conn- 
not been in office more than 
posed (March 23, 1846) to 
draulic ])ower within the 
limits. The proposals con- 



p'lwrr. corporation 

tained a preamble asserting that, "It has been ascertained that there is within the corporation 
limits of Madison, a fall or difference of elevation between the Third and Fourth of the Four 
Lakes, sufficient if improved, to create a water-power of considerable magnitude." Simeon Mills 
made a j)roposition, which was accepted, to lease this water-power for sixty years; but later, after 
a fresh survey of the lake levels, he abandoned the enterprise. At various times thereafter, the 
Cattish water-power project was publicly discussed, but nothing more came of it than a small 
o-rist mill at the outlet of Lake INIendota, which was destroyed by fire a few years since. The 
city has lately regained possession of the dam, and will hereafter use it merely as a means of reg- 
ulating the level of the lakes. 

Green Bay had a newspaper (the Intelligencer ) as early as 18:33; the Milwaukee Adrertiser 
had been founded in 1836, and the Sentinel in 1837; while Mineral Point witnessed the birth of 
the Miners^ Free Preas in the latter year. But it was November, 1838, before the 
Enquirer was born, the first newspajier in Madison; the second was the Express, 
founded in 1839; in 1842, the Wisconsin Democrat appeared uj)on the scene; in 1844, the Argus; 
the Statesman in 18.")(), the State Journal in 1852, and the Patriot and Staats-Zeitung in 1854. The 
first regularly- issued daily in the village — there had been daily legislative editions before that — 
was the Argus and Democrat in 1852, the present Daily Democrat being established in 1868; the 
State Journal began with a daily in 1852. ^ 

■ For a detailed history of the Madison newspaper press, see Catalogue of Newspapers, ]Vis. Hist. Soc. 
(ISOS), pp. 138-147. 



The newspaper 



MADISON AS A VILLAGE. 15 



The Madison newspapers have, from the fii-st, been edited by men of considerable reputation 
iu their ijrofession. The Enquirer was established by Jusiah A. Xoonan, who was, for a genera- 
tion, one of the most prominent men in the State; among others who were, at various times, con- 
nected with this journal, were C. C. Sholes, George Hyer, J. G. Kuapp, and Harrison Eeed, 
whose names are indissolubly connected with the work of molding the young commonwealth. 
W. W. Wyman, in his day one of the leading citizens of Wisconsin, founded the Express, and 
such men of influence as Julius T. Clark, William Welch, Jerome K. Brigham, and David 
Atwood were at different periods engaged as its editors. The first Wisconsin Democrat was the 
child of J. G. Knapp. among whose associates were J. P. Sheldon (founder of the Detroit 



insro]¥sii¥ c:i%iitiiRKR- 



1 . hii r.Muri 





FIRST NEWSPAPER IN DANE COUNTY 
Facsimile from file in State Historical Library. 

Gazette) and George Hyer; it suspended in 181:4, and another paper of the same name was estab- 
lished (1846) byBeriah Brown, one of the foremost Territorial journalists. The Wisconsin Argus 
was founded by Simeon jMilLs, John Y. Smith, and Benjamin Holt, with whom, in time, became 
associated Horace A. Tenney, David T. Dickson, and S. D. Carpenter — all of them men whose 
history is that of the Wisconsin of their day. The Wisconsin Statesman was conducted by W. W. 
and A. U. Wyman (the latter becoming, in after years, treasurer of the United States), with 
William Welch as associate editor. The State Journal (founded by David Atwood in 18,52) 
was the successor of the Palladium, itself the successor of the Express and the Statesman; as the 
Express was founded iu 1S;?9, the State Journal has always dated its birth back to that year, i 

' See State Journal for August 16, ISSSt, article " Fifty Years Old." 



16 



THE STORY OF :MADIS0X. 



However correct may be the genealogy, this paper can boast a long bead-roll of editorial wor- 
thies; among them, Horace Rublee, George Gary, Harrison Reed, A. J. Turner, James Ross, 
Hayden K. Smith, J. O. Culver, Levi Aldeu, O. D. Braudenburg, Horace A. Taylor, A. J. 
Dodge, and Amos P. Wilder — several of these, men who in the later years of their life achieved 
wide reputation in this and in other fields of usefulness. The name of the Wisconsin Pafriot 
recalls that of its old chief, S. D. Carpenter, who is well remembered among the newspaper men 
of the State. The Daily Democrat, which succeeded the Wisconsin Union, itself the successor of 
the Wisconsin Capitol (186.5) and the Wisconsin Democrat ( 1S4() ), lias been the product, in various 
years, of such men of character and influence as J. B. and A. C. Parkinson, George Raymer, 
R. M. Bashford. L. M. Fav. H. W. Hovt, E. E. Bryant, and (>. I). Brandenburg. Situated at the 




PIXCKXEV STKKKT, ABOl'T 1S,0 

Sliowiiig 1)1(1 Mi'thuJist. Churfh (with square tower on left); American House (on site of present First Xational Bank); and 
part of United States Hotel (iu riglit foreground). 

j)olitical and educational center of the State, in close and daily touch with the mainsprings of 
action in these two important fields, ]\Iadison journals have always had a marked influence on 
public opinion. Its editors are forced to look beyond the affairs of their immediate neighborhood, 
and discuss men and measures of the State at large; their constituency is the connuonwealth, and 
this fact has given unusual breadth and freshness to their treatment of public affairs. 

It was during the existence of Madison as a village, that the majjority of our principal 
church societies were organized. The first in the field had been the Episcopalians. The follow- 
y.^^YW ^"S paper, dated July 2'>. lS3!t. is the earliest known document in the history 

churches. of the Madison churches — most of the signatures are those of leading pioneers: 

"We, whose names are hereunto attaeheii, believing the Holy Scriptures to be the word of God, and 
deeply feelhig the importance of maintaining divine service in our town, and preferring the Protestant 



MADISON AS A VILLAGE. 17 



Episcopal Church to any other, we hereby unite oui-selves iuto a parish of the said church for the above and 
every other purpose which is requisite ami necessary to the case. 

"Madison, .July 25, 1S39. 

" Signed by Jolin Catliu, J. A. Noonan, Henry Fake, H. Fellows, M. Fellows, A. Hyer, H. Dickson, H. C. 
Fellows, Adam Smitli, A. Lull, Alniira Fake, La Fayette Kellogg, George C. Hyer, J. Taylor, A. A. Bird, 
David Hyer." 

Nothing ai)i)o:irs to have ininieiliately eonie out of this inovcuient. March 8, ISiO, a meet- 
ing of five citizens' was held in tlic Capitol, and a society organized, with the name Apcstolic 
Church, and Eev. Washington I'liihi as clergyman. Mr. Philo serv'ed for a year — meetings 
being held in the Capitol — and was succeeded by Eev. Richard P. Cadle, of the Green Bay 
mission. Mr. Cadle can not have long remained, for we read in the village annals that Decem- 
ber 19, 1845, Eev. Stephen McHugh accepted a call to jMadison, and set about "the organization 
of a parish" to be known as Grace Church; under his ministry, the ladies of the society raised 
$1.50, with which were purchased the two lots occupied by the present church building. Resign- 
ing in 1817, Mr. McHugh does not seem to have had a successor until 1850, when Rev. AV. H. Wood- 
ward, of Pontiac, Mich., accepted the call of the vestry. During his pastorate, a brick building 
was erected on the church lots. Thereafter, there was regular service. The foundations of the 
present stone church were laid in the autumn of 1855; but the old brick building, long used as a 
chapel and Sunday school, was not demolished until 1868. 

Mr. Philo had been in chaige of his flock some .seven months, when anotlier church society 
wiis formed in the settlement. October i, 1810, nine persons,'^ also meeting in the old Capitol, 
" united themselves in an organization as a Christian Church in Madison." Rev. Elbert Slinger- 
land, a Reformed Dut<'h Church missionary, was the organizer of this movement, and induced 
his little band to assume the name of that denomination; but upon his departure (June, 1841), 
they attached themselves to the Presbyterian and Congregational Convention of Wisconsin, and 
adopted the name of the Congregational Church in Madison, thus being the founders of the 
present society. Eev. J. M. Clark, of Kentucky, now took charge of the work, being succeeded in 
184;} by Rev. S. E. Miner, of New York, who was in the employ of the Home Mi.ssionary Soci- 
(■l,\: lie in turn wtvs succeeded (October, 1846) by Rev. Charles Lord, of Missouri, who was 
installed in 1S52, at the time the church became self-suijporting. At first, the Congregational ists 
met iu the Capitol, then the favorite meeting place of what churches there were in the commu- 
nity. Next, they sought shelter in the old Peck tavern building, the first house in the village; 
then in a spacious new barn; next in a little frame building on Webster street (the first church 
in Madison), which was dedicated in 1S46, and in its day deemed a lordly structure, from having 
cost $1,800 — the same building now occupied by the German Presbyterian society, under the 
ministry of the Eev. H. A. Winter. It was upon this building that the first public bell was 
hung in Madison (July, 1847). In ten years (1856) the church house had become too small for 
the Congregational ists, and meetings were thereafter held in Bacon's Commercial College, until 
they could erect (1857-58) the brick chapel on We.st Washington Avenue, costing $4,400. This 
was occupied until IMay, 1874, when the present church home was completed and dedicated. 

The first sermon preached in Madison was undoubtedly that of Rev. Salmon Stebbins, pre- 
siding elder of the ^Milwaukee District of the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. In the early winter of 1837, he made his way through the woods to this place, and 
preached (November 28) to the woi'kmen engaged on the Capitol. It is thought that he found 
none of his faith here, yet Madison, as the Territorial Capital, was in 1838 placed at the head of 
the list of missions, being on the same circuit with Fort Winnebago (Portage) and Muscoda. 

' David Hyer, .John Catliu, J. A. Noonan, P. W. Matts, and Adam Smith. 

= David Brighani, Mrs. E. F. Brighani, W. N. Seymour, Mre. A. M. Seymour, Mrs. M. A. Morrison, 
Mrs. E. Wyman, ^Ire. C. R. Pierce, Mrs. A. Catlin, and Mrs. Elbert Sliugerland. 



18 THE STORY OF MADISON. 



The preacher at this time was the Eev. Samuel Pilsbury. Kev. Alfred Branson, the foremost of 
the circuit riders of early Wisconsin, arrived in Madison in December, 1840, as a member of the 
legislature, and throughout that winter exhorted his fellow members as well as the villagers, the 
meetings being held in the Capitol. In 1841, a regular class was formed hei-e, with eleven mem- 
bers, but it was several years before Madison was anything more than a mission. The first 
Methodist church (now "The Fair" store) was erected in 1850-52, but fur a loiii; time the 
society was feeble. Tlie present stone church was commenced in 1870. 

The German Evangelical Association had a missionary preacher in JIadison as early as 
1841 — Eev. J. G. IMiller, whose circuit was the Galena mission, which included portions of Illi- 
nois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. His was the first German sermon at the ( Capital. Mr. Miller was, in 
1845, assigned to the new Winnebago mission, which embraced the entire Territory of Wiscon- 
sin; but in 1840, the name was changed to Madison mission. The (ierman population of Madi- 
son grew apace, so that, after being regularly served by various preachers, the association 
organized a permanent society in 1853, and commenced the erection of a church building — the 
Ijresent brick structure being completed in 1805. 

The Baptist church was organized December 23, 1847, with Eev. II. W. Eead as the lirst 
pastor; it was incorporated in 1853, and during the same year the present brick building was 
commenced — being, at the time, the best church building in the village. 

The Presbyterians organized their church society October 4, 1851, with Eev. H. B. Gardiner 
as stated supply, and for a time occupied Lewis's Hall, on the east corner of Wisconsin Avenue 
and Johnson street. In 1853, they moved into their own building, opposite Lewis's Hall; but 
in 1892 occupied their present quarters on the south corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Dayton 
street, their former building being converted into a Masonic Temijle. 

We hear of Catholic services being held in INIadison as early as 1843, by Eev. Martin Kun- 
dig, of Milwaukee. A chronicler reports that Father Kundig was in that year attempting to 
raise funds for the erection of a church; but nothing seems to have come of the effort, for it was 
not until May 28, 1854, that the corner stone of St. Eaphael's was laid. Holy Ecdeenier church 
(E. C. ) was erected in 1857, but not dedicated until 1809. The German Evangelical Lutherans 
also built their church in 1857. St. Patrick's church (E. C. ) was erected in 1888. 

We have seen that the first house in Madison was a hotel — Peck's log tavern, built tor tlie 
accommodation of chance travelers, and the workmen engaged in constructing the Capitol. 
J,];,,.],, Pierce's dwelling, the second in the place, was a boarding house for the mechan- 

''otfls. j,.g_ It is natural that, considering the genesis and character of Madison, hotels 

should lia\e played a considerable part in its history, especially in the earlier days. 

To accommodate the legislators in the winter of 1838-39, two new hotels had been erected, 
the American House (kept by Messrs. Fake & Cotton) and the Madison Hotel (with Charles H. 
Bird as proprietor); while Peck's had now assumed the lofty name of Mansion House. The 
American stood on the site of the present First National Bank, and the Madison on the north 
corner of Main and Pinckney streets. In the latter house, the Territorial supreme court was 
organized June 1, 1838, and during the following winter it was headquarters for Governor Dodge 
and the leading Territorial officials; in the former (destroyed by fire September 5, 1808), the 
Territorial legislature held its session during February, 1830. A member of the succeeding leg- 
islature ^ wrote of these hotels: "The American was of wood, two stories above the basement, 
with a spacious attic; and such was the crowd when the legislature was in session, that the attic 
(all in one room) was filled with beds on the floor to accommodate lodgers, and it got the cogno- 
men of the 'school section.' The Madison Hotel was not .so large, but equally crowded, and 



Rev. Alfred Bruuson, in Durrie's Madison, p. 135. 



MADISON AS A VILLAGE. 19 



besides these, every private house that possibly could accommodate boarders, was filled to over- 
flowing. The Territory was generally well represented on such occasions, and every one had ' an 
axe to grind.' " Other hostelries of the pioneer period, but built in later years, were the City 
Hotel, Lake House, National Hotel, Kentucky House, and Schemerhorn House. 

Madison had no public cemetery worthy of the name, until 1846. The summit of Univer- 
sity Hill is said to have been the first burial place — "the grave [of a man killed by lightning] being 

^ . at the southeast corner of the present central building,"' before the new south 

Cemeteries. . , "' 

wing was added (1898-99). Soon after, a plot was opened in Greenbush, on the city 

slope of Dead Lake Ridge, but it was small and unimpro\ed. In 1840, the block in the present 

Sixth Ward, now known jis Orton Park, was inaugurated as a burial ground, and appropriately 

fenced and ornamented; but in time these three-aud-a-half acres became choked with graves, 

and Forest Hill Cemetery, the present beautiful burial place of the city, was opened in 18.58. 

This cemetery embraces sixty acres; the ('atholic grounds, across the street, opened two years 

later, contain seventeen. ^ 

The admission of "Wisconsin to the sisterhood of States, in 1848, brought the school lands 
into market, introduced improvements in the school code, and, by convincing capitalists that the 
Farvvell's real commonwealth had come to stay, gave a great impetus to the State's mercantile 
estate "boom." ^nd manufacturing interests as well as to immigration. Madison, which up 
to this period had been languishing, now entered upon a more prosperous career, reasonably sure 
of retention as the seat of government — the location here, by the Territorial legislature, of the 
State University, being deemed an additional guarantee of good faith in this particular. In 
1849, L. J. Farwell, a Milwaukee capitalist, took up his residence here. Being a man of marked 
public spirit, he made extensive improvements, and began to "boom" the place by the liberal 
distribution of descriptive pamphlets, thus attracting the attention of the outside public to the 
ad\antages of IMadison as a home, The effect was soon seen in a considerable influx of popula- 
tion, and an increase in business investments. The village school interest.s, always quickly 
affected by the condition of the public exchequer, were at once bettered by this improvement in 
the general prospect; and although they met with many disasters during the next few years, 
because of general financial panics and local di.sappointmcnts, this period may be set down as 
the date at which genuine progre-ss began. ^ 

The population of the village in 18.50 was 1,672, a gain of over a hundred per cent in three 
years. There were strong signs of prosperity, this season, and over a hundred new buildings 
"An luhaliiteJ ^'^''^ erected. A writer in the Argus, this summer, speaks of Madison as being, 
forest." jij sjjite of its ni\nCi growth, so hidden in the trees that travelers "can only see 

half of it at a time" and go away with a poor opinion of its size, for "it does not show off to 
advantage, being, in short, an inhabited forest." During the year, a sale of 5, .320 acres of school 
and University lands in Dane county brought $29,280.03 to the common school fund. The 
census, in April, showed the presence of 317 persons of school age, of whom 153 were in attend- 
ance. In September there were 503 of school age, showing a cousiderable growth of population 
during the summer. 

During the early months of 1853, the legislature w;\.s importuned tor a charter, by a party 
of speculators calling them.selves the Rock River Valley Union Railroad Company. It was the 

1 H. A. Tenney, in Durrie, p. 1(>4. 

' Deming Fitch served as superintendent of Forest Hill Cemetery from 18-58 to 1894; his son, W. D. Fitch, 
from 1894 to 1S9G; William H. Alford, from 1896 to the spring of 1899; the present superintendent Is H. J. 
Miuch. 

' The first circus reached INIadison in 1848. The legislature was in session, and the body adjourned 
thereto "without the fonuality of a vote." — Durrie, p. 165. 



20 THE STOEY OF MADISON. 



first timo that a Wisconsin legislature had been "worked" by a railway lobby, and the methods 
emphwed tliis winter were such as to cause a sensation throughout the State, and to scandalize 
The Monks of many good citizens. The lobbyists engaged a club house on the corner of Monona 
Monk's Hall. Avenue and Doty street (site of the present residence of Mrs. David Atwood), 
which they called "Monk's Hall;" and herein were given sujierb dinners and held midnight 
orgies, the remembrance of which is still vivid in the minds of those ■\\'lio particijiated in them. 
The "jMonks of Monk's Hall" represented all shades of political belief, and were popularly 
dul)bed "The Forty Thieves" — a term long familiar in Wisconsin political nomenclature, from 
having later been applied to William A. Barstow and his political adherents. 

This year (1853) marked the opening of the first bank in Madison — the State, which began 
business in January, with $r)0,000 capital; this was the first bank organized in Wisconsin under 
the new general banking act. ''die Bank of the West opened in March, 1854, 
witli a cai)ital of $100,000; in October of the same year, the Dane County 
opened its doors, followed (1855) by Dickinson's private bank, the Merchants' Bank of Madison 
(1856), the Wisconsin Bank of Madison (1850), the Bank of Madison (I860), and the First 
Nati(mal (1863). The directory for 1866 showed Init four then in operation — the Farmers', the First 
Nati<>n;il, the State, and the Madison. In 1S75, there were five — the First National, the State, 
the (iernian, the Park Savings, and the State Savings Institution. To day (1899) there are still 
five banking institutions in our midst — the First National, the State, the German American, the 
Capital City, and the Bank of Wisconsin. 

The year 1854 was notable in Madison fn>m the ai rival of the firsi railway train — over the 
Milwaukee & Mississippi line, the pioneer railway of Wisconsin, and the modest progenitor of 
Arrival of first ^'^^ present Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system. The company's bridge over 
railway train. Lake Monona had been begun in the previous year, and its station had been com- 
])leted on the first of January. The long-expected passenger train came over the bridge May 18, 
but llic track to the station was nut laid until the L'L'd: on the aftei-noon of the 23d. the train — 
drawn by two engines, and composed of 32 coaches laden with about 2,500 pet)ple — was pulled 
into the yard, amid the plaudits of thousands of spectators, many of whom, settling in the 
country early, had never seen a railway train. Piominent figures in the spectacle were several 
Milwaukee fire comj^anies "in gay red unitbrms, with their glistening engines," who rode on flat 
cars in the rear of the train, accompanied by bands of music and a piece of artillery; while 
" bright-colored parasols, ranged in groups along the shore, lent liveliness to the scene." The 
Stale Journul, in its enthusiiTstic report, assures us that "It was a grand but strange spectacle to 
see this monster train, like some huge, unheard-of thing of life, with breath of smoke and flame, 
emerging from the green openings — scenes of pastoral beauty and (luietude — beyond the placid 
waters of the lake." There was the usual "procession of the multitude '" to the Capitol park, 
"where tables were spread, and a dinner prepared," and oratory without stint. Later, the rail- 
way was projected to Prairie du Chien. The telegraph had reached Madison, along country 
roads, seven years before. 

By act of legislature, approved February 13, 1S55, the village of ^Madison was incorporated 
into a separate, self-governed school district, apart from the town, with six directors who were 
Another mild Styled "The Board of Education of the Village of Madison." The present city 
"boom." school board is its lineal descendant. The village experienced another mild 

"boom" this year. Horace Creeley and Bayard Taylor paid the place a visit, ^ and in letters to 

' Greeley was here in March, and Taylor in May. The former wrote: "Madison has the most magnifi- 
cent site of any inland town I ever saw. * * * The University crowns a beautiful eminence a mile west 
of the Capitol, with a main street connecting them a la Pennsylvania Avenue. There are more comfort- 
able private mansions now in progress in jMadison than in any other place I have visited, and the owners 



MADISOX AS A VILLAGE. 21 



the New York Tribune highly extolled its beauties. The result was quite marked, there 
being an almost immediate increase of population and a considerable advance in the price of 
real estate. Three hundred and fifty buildings were erected during the season, and the village 
papers reported with much pride that a thousand had been constructed since 1847. 

The population had jumped to 6,8(!3, a gain of 1,737 in twelve months, but Superintendent 
Kilgore, in his annual report, spoke despondently of the fact that the schools had not yet shared 
the general prosperity. He complained of " great irregularity " and •' habitual tardiness;" of lack 
of interest on the part of parents; of the fact that all the clergymen in the village had sjient in the 
aggregate only six hours during the yeai-, in visiting the schools; of the fact that from 150 to 300 
children were in private schools at home or abroad, and that 600 were attending no school what- 
ever, and "as far as they are concerned might as well li\e in Central Africa as the Capital of 
Wisconsin." He said that the only school building owned by the city was "a small brick 
school-house [the Little Brick], fast becoming obsolete, and incapable of accommodating one- 
thirtieth of those entitled to public instruction." Me complained that the citizens had given 
freely of their money for building churches, but not for the culture of the intellect. He alluded 
to the fact that "lai-ge sums of money had been subscribed to build a theatre — an institution of 
at least questionable merit, while 600 children are unprovided with even decent school-houses." 
Such criticism as this has a modern sound, for to this day most cities in the X'nited States are 
still without sufiEicient school accommodations for their children. ' 



are mostly recent immigrants of lucans and cultiviition, from Now KiijtjlniHl, from Cincinnati, and oven from 
Europe. Madison is growing very fast. * * * Slie lias a glorious career I lofo re lier." Taylor's comment 
was: "For natural beauty of situation, Madison is superior to every other Western city tliat I liave seen." 
Greeley and Taylor were here in connection with a lecture course (winter of LS5-l-^55, and spring of 185(i), in 
which other participants were James Russell Lowell, Parke Godwin, and .John G. 8axo. September 12, 
1800, Madison was visited by William H. Seward and Charles Francis Adams. August 1^1, 1S61, Prince 
Napoleon and his beautiful young wife, a daughter of Victor JOnunanuel, of Italy, with their suite, passed 
through en rou/c to 8t. I'aul, but shut themselves up in their railway carriage and declined to be gazed at 
by the crowd, wliich nevertheless good-naturedly cheered the travelers. .John Walter, owner of the London 
Times, was in Madison in 1876. Sir Edwin Arnold visited us .hmuary .5-(), 1892, and afterwards wrote pleas- 
antly of the city. Matthew Arnold was another of Madison's distinguished visitors; and Ole Bull married 
and long lived here. Longfellow, who wrote charmingly of Madison's "limpid lakes," was never in Wis- 
consin. The final chapter of our Story records the visits of other celebrities, in later yeaiv. 

' The following is a list of presidents and clerks of the Board of Education, since its organization in Isof): 





Pre.*iiffanU. 


Clerks; 


Prende7iLs. 


Clerks. 


1856 


W. B. Jarvis 
W. B. Jarvis 


W. A. White. 
Simeon ^lills. 


1SC4 W. T. Leitch 


JW. A. Hayes. 
(John A. Byrne. 


18.57 


J W. B. Jarvis 
1 D. H. Wright 


1 I). S. Durrrie. 


ISd.-) W. T. Leitch 
1S66 E. W. Keyes 


S. H. Carpenter. 
S. H. Carpenter. 


1858 


D. H. Wright 


H. G. Bliss. 


18(i7-72 J. H. Carpenter - 


S. H. Carpenter. 


1859- 


60 David Atwood 


H. G. Bliss. 


1873-79 J. H. Carpenter - 


W. T. Leitch. 


1860 


Julius T. Clark - 


H. G. Bliss. 


1S80-89 J. H. Carpenter - 


John Corscot. 


1862 


J. W. Sterling 


j H. G. Bli-ss. 
1 W. A. Hayes. 


1S9:)-91 John B. Parkinson 
lSil2-95 Henry M. l^ewis - 


John Corscot. 
O. S. Norsman. 


1863 


W. T. Leitch 


\\-. A. Hayes. 


lS9i-97 .John W. Stearns - 
1898-99 Jolin Corscot 


O. S. Norsman. 
(). S. Norsman. 



THE STORY OF MADISOX. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Earlij Days of tlie City — lSoO-lSlio. 

Madison received a city charter March 4, 1856, the population being divided as equally as 
practicable into four wards — since increased to eight. Col. Jairus C Fairchild was the first 
Madison lie- mayor, William N. Seymour the first clerk, ^ and the first city school board was 
comes a city, composed of Wm. B. Jarvis (president), D. H. Wright, L. J. Farwell, L. W. Hoyt, 
Simeon Mills, and Darwin Clark. ^ 

Educational interests were at once i)ushed to the front by the new school board, which in 
August induced the city fathers to appropriate enough money ($6,887.50) to purchase sites for 
school houses in the First, Second, and Fourth wards: but there were no means for building, and 
the several ward schools still continued to be held in rented I'ooms. The total cost of conducting 
the school system in 1856 was $4,334.06 — it was not until the following year that the superin- 
tendent received a salary of $1,000. 

In its report at the close of 1856, the board spoke discouragingly of "the continued dis- 
graceful, destitute condition of tlie city, with regard to school houses."' Superintendent Kilgore, 
The citv's however, was more confident. While alluding, in his own rejtort, to "the ab- 

school houses, sence of anything in the material apiiurtenances of the schools * * * calcu- 
lated to giatify a love for the beautiful and to refine and elevate the taste," he nevertheless 
thought that the schools had been more prosperous during the year than at any former period, 
that there had been an increase of public interest in them, and tluit the pupils had creditably 
accpiitted themselves. He referied to the fact that in his previous report he had said Madison 
was behind Waukesha, Beaver Uam, and Whitewater in the matter of public education; but now 
he thought that "things looked brighter." In 1857, the First and Third ward buihlings were 
completed, the council evidently having seen that it was useless further to fight the school board, 

.Tohn R. Baltzell 
Philip L. 8)i(ioner, Jr. 
.James ( 'oukliii 
Ri-eese ,J. Stevens 
Hiraiu X. :N[imlton 
KHsha W. Keyes 
.Tames ( 'cinklin 
M. Haiisdm Dovon 
lioliert M. ]5ashf(iril 
William H. Kogers 
.John Corseot 
.Jal.e Alford 
Alliert .\. Dve 
M. .J. Hoveii 
Chas. E. Whelan 
M. ,). Hoven. 

The following eity elerks have served Iroiu the organization of the eily to the present time: April, 1856 
to Oetoher, lSo7, William N. Seymour; October, 1857 to Ajiril, 18.58, Stephen H. Carpenter; April, 1858 to 
April, LS-W, Henry Wright; April, 1859 to November, 1861, Charles CI. Mayers; November, 1861 to .July, 
1865, William A. Hayes; July, 1865 to September, 1S6S, Stephen H. Carpenter; Septemlier, ls6s to April 1, 
18110, Jolm Corseot; April 1, 1890 to date, O. S. Norsmau. 

'' See p. 21, for list of presidents and elerks of the board of edueation from ls55 to date. 



• The following is 


a list of mayors from 1856 tc 


1 the present time: 


1856-57 - 


Jairus C. Fairebild 


1S79-S0 - 


1857-58 - 


Augustus .\. Bird 


ISSII-Sl - 


],s,-,s-(;l - 


George B. Smith 


1SS1-S4 - 


]s(;i a;-i - 


Levi B. Vilas 


1SS1-S5 - 


lSli2-(15 - 


William T. Leiteh 


lSS5-S(i 


lsrM-67 - 


Elisha W. Keyes 


]SS(i-S7 - 


18(i7-(iS - 


Allien S. Sanb'oru 


1SS7-SS 


ls(;s-(i9 - 


David Atwood 


I SSS-! « 1 - 


1869-71 - 


Andrew Proudtit 


1S9II-'.I1 - 


1871-72 - 


J. B. Bowen 


]s9i-9:5 - 


1872-73 - 


James L. Hill 


]s9:;-95 


187H-74 - 


Jared C. Gregory 


ls!(5-9(i - 


1874-76 - 


Silas U. Piuney" 


lS9i;-97 - 


1876-77 - 


John N. Jones' 


lSi)7-9S - 


1877-78 - 


Harlow S. Orton 


1S9S-99 - 


1878-79 - 


George 15. Smith 


ISilH 



EARLY DAYS OF THE CITY. 



23 



The financial panic which swept over the country this year had its effect on the city finances, and 
the board was reluctantly obliged to abandon for a time its projects of buildings in the Second 
and Fourth wards. In 1858, the 3Iadison Female Academy sold its building and grounds to the 
city as a home for the Higli School, which had hitherto been quartered in a church; in the same 
year, a school was opened in the Greenbush addition; the following year, the Xortheast District 
school was established, in conjunction with the Town of Blooming Grove; the present Fourth 
Ward school house was opened in January, 1866; the Second Ward in 1867; the Fifth ^^'ard in 
1870; a new High School building on the site of the old Academy, in 1873; ' in 1887, the Little 
Brick wjus demolished, to make room on the same site for a new Third Ward school building, 
which was enlarged in 1893; in 1891, Gi-eenbush was given a new building; and in 1894 the new 
Sixth Ward building was constructed, being enlarged in 1896. 

In 1856, Madison was the scene of political excitement of a serious character. William 
Barstow (Democrat) had been elected governor for the years 1854-55 by a plurality of 8,519 
The Bashford- votes over Edward D. Holton (Republican) and Henry S. Baird (Whig). There 
Bnrstow contest, ^^s much i^olitical bitterness in the State, and this was intensified during Bar- 




THE OI.I) CAl'ITOL, IN UAKSTOW'S TIME 



stow's administration, largely because of his aggressive tone. Charges were freely made by his 
enemies that he had allowed his official staff to mismanage the school funds, and favor personal 
friends in the loaning of State money. However tliis may be, Barstow lost ground during his 
term, and although renominated failed to draw out his full party strength in the November 
election of 1855. The new Republican party, too, was now attaining huge proportions, and the 
result was, the balloting for governor proved so close that from the middle of November to the 
middle of December the people wei-e in a state of unquiet, not knowing whether Barstow had been 
returned or whether he had been supplanted by his Republican opjionent. Coles Bashford, an 
Oshkosh lawyer. The State board of canvassers was composed of Barstow suijporters, and re- 
ported that he had received 157 majoritJ^ Ba-shford's friends claimed that the returns had been 
tampered with, and the Republican leaders i)repared for a contest. 



' The High School graduated its firet class (fourteen nienibei'sl, July 2, Is,."); eight of them entereil the 
State University. 



24 THE STORY OF MADISON. 



Barstow took the oath of office, January 7, 1S5G, amid the usual pomp of civic and military 
display, and remained in possession of the executive chamber. Bashford, ou his part, was quietly 
sworn in by Chief- Justice Whiton, in the chamber of the State supreme court. The court was at 
once called upon by Bashford, in a quo warranto suit, to oust the incumbent and give the office 
of governor to the relator. Thus commenced the most celebrated case ever tried by the Wisconsin 
supreme bench. This was the first time in the history of the United States that a State court 
had been called upon to decide as to the right of a governor to hold his seat: its jurisdiction 
was questioned by Barstow' s attorneys. The contest waged fiercely for some weeks, with 
eminent counsel on both sides, ' the court at last holding that it had jiu'isdiction. Finally, being 
defeated on every motion, Barstow withdrew from the case, protesting that the judges were 
actuated by political considerations. The court proceeded with its inquiry, however, found gross 
irregularities in the canvass of votes, and declared (^larch 24) that Bashford had received a ma- 
jority of 1,009. Meanwhile (March 21), Barstow, who had all along threatened that he would 
not "give up his office alive," sent in his resignation to the legislature, and Lieutenant Governor 
iMc.Vrthur became governor by \irtue of the constitution. McArthur was defiant, and announced 
his determination to hold the fort at all hazards. But the court promptly ruled that McArthur 
could gain uo rights through Barstow — for the latter"s title being worthless, McArthur could not 
succeed to it. 

Through this long contest, it may well be imagined that popular excitement in and around 
Madison ran increasingly high. Parties of men representing both relator and respondent made 
no secret of the fact that they were armed and drilling, in anticipation of a desperate encounter. 
It would ha\'e taken small jirovocation to ignite this tinder box, but the management on both 
sides was judicious; and although the partisan bands had frequent wordy quarrels, and there 
were numerous and vigorous threats of \ii)hMice, there was no appioach to blows. 

It was Monday, March 24, when the court rendered its (lccisi<in. Bashford announced that 
on Tuesday he would take possession of the executive chamber. Early in the appointed day, 
people began to gather in the vicinity of the Capitol, coming in from the neigliboring country in 
a circuit of ten miles, as they would Hock to a tiaveling circus. By nine o'clock, the Capitol 
was crowded with citizens, chiefly adherents of Bashford, and there was much ill-sujipressed 
passion. At eleven o'clock, Bashford and a party of his followei'S, encouraged by friendly 
cheers, made their way through the corridors — accompanied by the Dane county sheriff, with 
the court's judgment in hand — and ra])ping at the governor's office was invited to enter. Bash- 
ford — a portly, pleasant-looking gentleniau of the old scliool — leisurely took off his ovei'coat, 
hung it and his hat in the wardrobe, and blandly informed McArthur and the coterie of friends 
about him, that he had come to take the lielm of State. The incumbent indignantly asked 
whether force was to be used; whereup n the new-comer replied that he "presumed no force 
would be essential, but in case any were needed there would be no hesitation whatever, with the 
sherifiTs help, in applying it." This was con.strued l)y McArthur as a " threat of constructive 
force," and he and his adherents at once hurried out of the door, passing through Bashford's 
friends, who cheered in triumph and then poured into the office to congratulate the new governor. 

In the legislature, there was at first some opposition. The senate received Bashford's open- 
ing message with enthusiasm, and at once passed a congratulatory vote. The assembly at first 
refused (38 to 34) to hold communication with the governor, but finally thirty of the Democrats 
withdrew, after filing a protest, and the house then agreed (37 to !l) to recognize the new otficial. 



' Basliford's oounsel wereTimotliy <). Howe, Edward (1. Ryan, .lames H. Knowltoii, and Alexander W. 
Uandall. Counsel employed for Barstow were Jonathan !<:. Arnold, Harlow 8. ( »rton, and JIatthew H. 
Carpenter. 



Kt^;. 




I'lXlKXEY STREET, AND THIKI) AND SIXTH M'AKDS 

From daguerreotype taken from rotunda of Caijitol, ISiaB. 



2« 



THE ST()1!Y OF jMADISON. 



The system of govenmient by the peojile had safely passed through a tiying ordeal; popular 
passions soon subsided, and the fear of civil war in Wisconsin was at an end. 

It will be remembered that the corner stone of the old Territorial Capitol was laid July 4, 
1837. Duiing 1836-37, the national government had approi^riated $4:0,000 for the building; the 
The development Territorial legislature voted some $16,000, and Dane county $4,000 — which 
of tlie Capitol. would make the cost of the building about $00,000. An old engraving of the 
first Capitol shows that it was of the then prevailing Americanized-Greek style, of which there 
are still left some examples, chiefly in the Southern States; contemporary accounts agree that it 
was rather superior in chai-acter to most of the Western Capitols of sixty years ago. On IMarch 
3, 1857, an act of legislature was approved, authorizing the enlargement of the Gaijitol — the 













jmmmmm 




fvlP 


/ 


4' ' .^^Lj^^^m^^Em 


m^~ 


' -/ "'' -^.^ ■■-^r^ 










••;. ' -"'^'-'-^'-j? ^?^^afiin*isiaivi^^--^--' — l:^ 





SrrK (IF TlIK I'KESKNT POSTOFFU'E, AHOUT ISdO 

Hiiusp faohig Mifflin sti'eet was occupied by Postmaster Keyes; that in its rear, facing Wisconsin Avenue, was later moved 
to Langdon street, being nucleus of the present No. 260. City Hall, in left foreground. 

plans developed into a new building; the "enlargement" waslml iKniiiiial. ' The State appro- 
l)riated $50,000 for this purpose, and the city of Madison $30,0(>0; but the money necessary for 
the work ($.541,447.03 ) was chiefly obtained from the sale l>y the school land commissionei'S of 
the ten sections of land appropriated by congress ''for the completion of public buildings." The 
\\oik dragged slowly, largely from lack of funds because of the Civil War; it was 1863 before the 
task of demolishing the old Capitol was commenced, and 1870 before the dome was completed on 
the new. In 1882. the legislature voted $200,000 for the present north and south wings, which 
greatly extended the capacity of the building. The total expenditures for the present Capitol 
and the development of the surrounding park, have been about $900,000. 



' The buildhig of tlie City Hall was also conmienced in 18.57; it was opened to tlie piililir on the eveiiiiisj 
of February 22, 1858, and was then thought to be a grand building. 



EAELY DAYS OF THE CITY. 



27 



The core of the modern State house was scarcely complete, when, in 1859, Madison suffered 
a narrow escape from the removal of the Capital to Milwaukee. The breaking of a tie vote in 
the legislatnre, alone saved !Madison. The closeness of the contest had rather a depressing effect 
on the city throughout the entire year; the official records of the time are filled with attempts to 
cut down expenses in many directions. 

Madison's first militia company — the (xovernor's (Juards — was organized at a meeting held 
Januaiy .30. 1S.5S. A week later, another body of citizens, chiefly Irish-Americans, established 
Militia ^^'^ Madison Guards. The martial spirit once stirred, it was not long before 

companies. (July 12) a cavalry company was formed — at first bearing the name Dane 

County Dragoons, which was subsequently toned down to Dane Cavalry. In April, 1861, during 




KOUKTH L.\KE, FROM TIIK CAI'ITOI, KkTINDA, IS;)!) 
Poslomce, City Hall, and Fuller Opera House in foregrouiul. 

the early war excitement, we read of a company styled Hickoi'y Guards, of which Chief-Justice 
Dixon was the captain. The Randall Guards of Madison constituted Co. H. of the Second Vol- 
unteer Infantry Regiment of the State (June, 1861), and served in the famous Iron Brigade. 
The Governor's Guard of our day, one of the craclc companies of the Wisconsin National Guard, 
is a post-helium organization. The Lake City Guards, organized in May, 1878, had a brilliant 
career for several years. 

Tlie outbreak of the War of Secession (1861) bi'ought Madison prominently into public 
notice. Throughout the long contest, a large proportion (70,000) of the 91,327 men whom Wis- 
'J'hi' war cousin .sent to the front, were at various times quartered in and drilled at Camp 

l»^''"'f"l- Randall. ' A Madison company was, too, the first of all to volunteer. January 9, 

1861, when apprehensions of war were in every mind, the Madison Guards (George E. Bryant, 



' The fair grounds of tlie Stat« Agricultural Society, tendered to the service of the State by the Society. 
After the War, the Society resumed its fairs on these grounds, until the annual exhiliitions were removed to 
Milwaukee. In 1893, the State purchased the property for an athletic field for the State University, with a 
view to securing its proper maintenance as an historical site. 



28 



THE STOKY OF MADISOX. 



captain) hail tendei-ed its serv' ices to Governor Eaudall, "in case tliose services might be required 
for the preservation of the American Union." Sunday, April 14, Fort Sumter fell. Monday, 
President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 three-months volunteers, but it did not reach Madi- 
son until Tuesday, when the governor issued a proclamation urging Wisconsin at once to send its 
quota of one regiment; at the same time he sent word to Oa^jtain Bryant accepting the tender 
made over three months before. The enrollment of men for this comf)any began on Wednesday 
(the 17th), and on the same day the Governor's Guards (Capt. J. P. Atwood) also tendered their 
services, which were accepted on the ISth. i It is an interesting fact that a large number of the 
Wisconsin regiments in the tiekl were oflicered by men IVoin I)ane county, which also sent to the 
War its full quota of privates. 

It wouhl lie a long story, adequately t() tell of the deeds of ^ladison men and women during 



course nnusually ardu- 
constant priiseiice at the 
troops in canii) and hos- 
frequently enlixened by 
ings were held in the 
farewell to regiments 
welcome home, with feast 
veterans; the women 
lief corps and sanitary 
mass- meetings were held 
of money for the prose- 
Those were busy and 
citizens of Wisconsin's 

Hill ('emetery will lind. 
Soldiers' liest, whei'e 
lie l)urie(l, a neat plot 
gray,"' and popularly 
IJest, Here lie buried 
nearly all of the First 
name-slabs indicating 
that most of them died in the month of May, 1862. It is a romantic story. 
The month before, 2,385 Confederates held Island Number Ten, in the Mis- 
sissipi)i Itiver, near New Madrid, Missouri; it was then the key to the situa- 
tion ill llie Western campaign. Long beleaguered by the Union forces, it became necessary to 
order the evacuation of the island, and daring the night of April 6, in the midst of a wild storm 
of rain, all hut a few hundred, after spiking the guns, succeeded in escaping to the Confederate 
lilies on the mainland; those left behind, chiefly of the First Alabama, were captured by the 
Kiiioii army, and sent north to Camp Randall, They were in a wretched condition, from having 
stood for hours at a time, knee-deep, at the island batteries, and most of them were on arrival in 
Madison at once placed in the hospital. Deaths were numerous — sometimes ten a day — the 
poor fellows being placed to rest in the local cemetery. Their bodies have not, however, been un- 



the War, w liich were of 
ous bi'caiise of the almost 
( 'aiiilnl of large bodiesof 
|iit;il. The streets were 
processions; great meet- 
Capitol, either to bid 
.sent to the front, or to 
and song, the war-worn 
were organized into re- 
(■oiiuiiittees, and fairs and 
by llicni for the raising 
eulioii of their work. 
SDubstiiTiiig times for the 
Capital. 

Tlie \isitoi' to Forest 
ill close |)i-oximity to 
many of our \(iluuteers 
devoted to "boys in 
known as Confederate 
V.V.) Soutliern soldiers, 
Alabama Infantry, the 



Coiilcdcrntc Uest 
;i roiiKiiire of tlie 
War. 




I'A iM,-i\i: 



' See tlie remarkiible record of this company, in Dan-ii; pp. 302-306, It furnished to the Union army, 
1 Ijrigadler general (Lucius Fairchild), 9 colonels, G lieutenant-colonels, 5 majoi-s, 10 captains, 12 lieutenants, 
;ui(l ii non-comuiissioiied offlcei's and privates; Ijesldes 1 ca])tain to the Confedeiate army (H. C. Bradford, 
of the Washington Battery, C. B. Artillery). 



EARLY DAYS OF THE CITY. 



29 



eared for; Mrs. Alice W. Waterman, a Southern woman who hiter came to live in Madison, had 
the plot ornamented, and the graves neatly marked, and as the years went on added improvements 
to the ground, so far as her means would allow. She died September 12, 1897, to the last speak- 
ing affectionately of her "boys," whose final home she had so persistently cared forthrongh nearly 
thirty years. The Confederate Veterans' A.ssociation is now (1S99) endeavoring to raise money 
for the placing of an appropriate monument at Confederate Rest, in accordance with the wishes 
of Mrs. Waterman. 

Despite the absence of so many of onr citizens at the front, higher taxes and prices, and the 
general prevalence of financial stringency, Madison prospered during the War time. The pres- 
ence of the troops enli\ened the streets; a great deal of money was necessarily being spent by 
State and nation, for supplies and salaries, as well as by the soldiers for entertainments of various 
kinds; so that the hard times elsewhere so observable, were not here felt to the same degree. In 
its review for 1861, the State Journal was able to say: " The year 1861 has been an eventful one, 
but with all the trials of hard times, of which people have justly complained in other parts of 



the country, Madison 
The business has l)een 
improvements of the 
sideralileandsubstan- 
healthy financial con- 
zens." In 1862, the 
fewer in number; but 
pers record the erec- 
ber of dwellings and 
several "flneresiden- 
ness "was promising, 
sirableimprovements 
was the year of the 
cago & Northwestern 
and the placing on 
' 'pioneer of the steam 
Capt. Francis Barnes" 
nawbequon." In 1S6 




il.I.MI'SE ALOXti SUdKE, ],AI<;K MKMhiIA 



has been exempt, 
prosperous, and the 
town have been con- 
t i a 1 , 1 s h o w i n g a 
(lit ion of our citi- 
improvements were 
in 1868, the newspa- 
tionof "alargenum- 
business blocks," and 
ces." In 1864, busi- 
aiid a number of de- 
made." This, too, 
arrival of the Chi- 
railwny from Beloit, 
Lake Monona of the 
pleasure boats" here, 
long-famous "Scuta- 



he improvements of the city for the year were numerous and valu- 
able" — the most notable being the erection of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, which for many 
ye.ars, until all the orphans had grown to maturity, did a most excellent work in maintaining 
rhem and in educating them for practical life. 

The population of the city had by this time grown to 9,191, and the industries of the year, 
as ascertained by the internal revenue collectors, were valued as follows: 



Iron nianiifac'tureil and afiricultural 
iiu|ileuR'Ots ----- 

Clolhintr 

Flour, li',000 barrels - - - - 
Tin ware - . . - . 



)? 108,685 

100,806 

72,000 

20,747 



La, eel" Iieer 
Coal gas 
Cabinet ware 
Boots and slioes 



.?6],110 
27,000 
14,000 
2S),o0S 



I Among them, the Chieago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway hotel at West ^Madison, and the nnniature 
castle on Gorliam street (now demolished), in the Second Ward. 



THE STOKY OF MADISON. 



CHAPTER V. 
Madison Since the War — 1S(U>-1SUU. 

Altlioiigb, :is has previously been noted (p. 26 ), it was 1870 before the Capitol dome was 
complete, the new building was made habitable for officials by January, 1866. Upon the twenty- 
State Histor- foiii'Ii "f *^li'it month, the library and museum of the State Historical Society for- 
ical Society, nially occupied its quarters in the south wing of the Capitol, the occasion being 
celebrated with considerable edot. Wisconsin had had an historical society while it was yet in 
the Territorial stage. As a result of agitation begun in the columns of the Mineral Point 
Democrat (October, 1845), a society composed of some of the principal men of the Territory was 
formed in Madison in October, 1840. But that society accomplished nothing: and the one which 
succeeded it in 1849 (January 30) was but a slight improvement, accumulating only fifty books 
in its career of ft)ur years. In 1853, this society was reorganized, and in January, 1854, Lyman 
C. Draper, a young Philadelphia antiquary, became its first secretary and executive officer, i 
The collections now grew rapidly, and were arranged in the basement of the Baptist church; it 
was from here that they were in 1806 removed to the Capitol — in what were then thought "ample 
and luxurious " quarters. But in eighteen years the library had grown to 100,000 titles, and the 
portrait gallery and museum were proportionately large; it was chiefly to accommodate them 
that the new south wing of the Capitol was built, and into the three upper floors of this 
wing the Society moved in December, 1884. Even this space soon became crowded, such was 
the phenomenal growth of the collections in every department. The legislatures of 1895, 
1897, and 1899 nobly responded to the persistent appeals of the Society for a fire-proof building of 
its own, equipped with all modern conveniences, and voted appropriations which ensured the 
erection of a structure (on grounds given by the regents of the State University, on the old 
" lower campus") creditable alike to the Society and the State. 

The Society, now regarded as one of the proudest possessions of Wisconsin, is accredited by 
scholars, the country over, as having won a general standing equal to that of the JIassachusetts 
society, the oldest and hitherto the foremost of American historical organizations; while in the work 
of investigation and publication, it is probably the most acti\'e of all. It has accumulated a library 
of 215,000 books and pamphlets, which ranks third in size and importance among the great his- 
torical libraries of the United States, and is the most important reference library west of the Alle- 
ghanies. While aiming to be a general library for scholars, it is strongest in the fields of 
Americana, English history, political science, and economics. It is resorted to by scholars and 
special investigators from all parts of the West and South, and its reading rooms are daily 
thronged with professors and students of the State University, to whom the collections are freely 
accessible. The Society's publications consist chiefly of The Wisconsin Historical Collections 
(biennial), Class Lists (occasional). Portrait Gallery Catalogue (triennial), and Annual Eejmrt; it 

• Dr. Draper served as secretary Irciiu .lanuary, 18)4, to January, 1887 — thirty-three years; being suc- 
ceeded by Reuben G. Thwaites, who has since served. The office of hbrarian was held by Daniel S. Durrie 
from January, lSo(i, till his death, August 30, 1892; being succeeded by liis Inrnicr assistant, Isaac S. Bradley, 
who still holds the otfice. 



MADISON SINCE THE WAR. 



31 



also frequently issues bulletins of information. By a law of 1897, the several local historical 
societies in Wisconsin are now auxiliary to the State society, make annual reports to it, and send 
delegates to its annual meetings. 

The Fourth of July celebration, in 1866, regarded in tlic light of a State peace celebration, 
was an event which will long live in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Twenty-thousand peo- 
Selections from Pl® were upon the streets, 3,000 of them having arrived by railway from Beloit, 
the annals. Janesville, and elsewhere; there was a procession of veterans bearing Wisconsin 

battle flags, of soldiers, orphans, engine companies, etc., and the customary orations. It was in 
this year, also, that the board of regents of the State University purchased the greater part of 
the present experimental farm; and that Madison bought her first steam fire-engine (December). 




THE CAPITOL IN MIDSUMSIEIl 
View from Mououa Aveuue, about 18it5. 

We learn fi-oiu the newspapers that in 1867 the first pipe organ came to town — in April, for 
Grace (Episcopal) church; and that (May 15) there was launched upon Lake Mendota the first 
steamboat built for 1 hat water — the " City of Madison, " a paddle- wheeler having an engine of 
20 hp., length of 56 ft., beam of 13 ft., and a cabin 12 x 16 ft. Shipments from Madison had by this 
time assumed considerable proportions: over the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien railway ( Jfilwau- 
kee system), had been transported to the E;ist 232,904 bus. of wheat, and 386,500 lbs. of dressed 
hogs; the Chicago & Northwestern railway had carried East 279; 167 bus. of wheat and 638,800 
lbs. of dressed hogs. 

At many sessions of the legislature, both Territorial and State, Milwaukee had sought to 
secure the removal of the Capital to that city. But in none of these efforts, before or since, was 
A Capital- success SO near as in 1870. February 19, an assembly bill for this purpose was 

removal scare, introduced, and referred to the committee on state affairs. The committee, in 
reporting thereon, called attention to the fact that persons in attendance upon the sessions found 



32 THE STORY OF MADISON. 



iusufficieiit accommodations at the hotels: Devertheless, the State having already invested a large 
Slim of money in the new capitol, the committee thought removal inexpedient. Thereupon the 
people of Milwaukee, backed by their county board of supervisors, made an offer to the State 
(February 28) of the free use of the county court house, then being constructed there. On the 
night of March 9, the bill came up in the committee of the whole. It was debated at great 
length, and with considerable acrimony, being finally reported for indefinite iiostponement by 
ayes 55, nays 31. 

The United States census of 1870 revealed the fact that ^ladison had a population of 0,173 — 
about one-half of the j)resent (1899). The assessed valuation of the real estate was s2,5(»0,000, 
and of personal property $1,260,018. The board of education had in charge eight school houses 
valued at $70,000, on sites valued at $14,900, and there were 956 pupils. 

The result of the removal agitation in 1870, induced the organization, soon after the legis- 
lative adjournment that year, of a stock company composed of prominent citizens, for the erection 
of the Park Hotel, which was opened to the public in Augu.st, 1S71. The local newspapers of 
the day asserted, with customary exaggeration, that this building was at the time "the most 
costly and handsomest of the kind in Wisconsin." 

Another event of 1S71 was the completion of the United States building, which houses the 
post-office, the federal courts, the internal revenue collector, and other United States officials 
Historv of tlie resident here. The first post-office in Madison was established February 15, 1837, 
post-offlce. ^vith John Catlin as postmaster, ^ Ijut it was not opened for business until May 27 

following. At first. Peck's house, on S. Butler street, was the post-office; but soon it was removed 
to Simeon Mill's store; - in 1811, Postmaster David Brigham moved it to "a small wooden build- 
ing on the triangular corner of Main, King, and Pinckney streets; " Postmaster Abbott (1850-53) 
dispensed mail matter in a "small building" on King street occupying the site of Perry's old 
junk store; Postmaster Jones (1853-61) held forth in another "small building,'" — niost build- 
ings were small, in those days, — adjoining the State Bank; then the post-office went to the site of 
the present Burrows block; thence to the building on West Main street now occupied by Thurin- 
ger iS: Sons — whence it was removed to the new federal building in 1871. 

Tlie year was also notable for the organization of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, 
and Letters, which has since had a useful existence, chiefly as an agent for the publication of im- 
A. ve-ir of portant monographic work, and the accumulation, by exchange, of a valuable 

progress. library of sets of transactious of other learned bodies throughout the world. Other 

events were the completion of the railway to Portage, the first train over which line arrived in 
Madison on the 9th of January; and of the Northwestern line to Baraboo — at which latter place 

' Madison's postmasters have been as follows: 18.37-41, John Catlin; 1841-42, David Brigham; 1842-44, 
John C'atliu; 1844-45, Steptoe Catlin; 1845-49, David Holt, Jr.; 1849-50, James Morrison; 1850-53, Chauneey 
Ablmtt; 1853-61, John N. Jones; 1861-81, Elisha W. Keyes; 1881-85, George E. Bryant; 1885-89, Jared C. 
Gregory; 1889-94, George E. Bryant; 1894-98, James Conklin; March 1, 1898, Elisha W. Keyes, the present 
inc-unibent, was appointed. See historical sketch of Madison post-ottiee, in Madison Democrat, Feb. 20, 1898. 
^ Mills had the i-ontract for carrying the mail between Madison and Milwaukee; he employed a man to 
do tliis work, on horseback, and at first the service was l)ut once a week, but later twice a week. Postmaster 
Catlin going East for a prolonged visit, his deputy was Franklin Hathaway, the surveyor of the Capitol 
park. The postoflice itself, Mr. Hathaway says, in a letter to thi' State Historical Society, " consisted of a 
suLull caseof pigeon holes, closed by doors, shinding on one end of the counter, in tlieonlystore then in oper- 
ation. Tins was store, saloon and post-oflice, all in one, and was tbe lounging place of the [Capitol] work- 
men, after fluishing the day's labor. The building, a one-story frame, was without lath or plaster, * * * 
and was one of the tour buildings then standing; the other three being a log house south of the S(iuare, near 
the bank of the third lake; a large Ih story frame boarding house and tavern, the entire upper lloor being 
one bare room, with rows of beds under the eaves, on each side, and a passageway through the middle, 
barely high enough to allow a man to stand erect; and a small frame ofRce, for the use of Conuuissioner 
Bird; and these comprised all the improvements of which Madison could then boast." 



MADISON SINCE THE WAR. 



33 



there was (September 12) a joyous celebration. Ladies" Hall, at the State University and the 
St. Eegina Academy were among the ma.iy new buildings this year. The Democrat, in'its review 
ot 18,1, says: '-In increased railroad facilities and public improvements, the State has never 
made more rapid growth than in the past year, and Ma.lison has n.ade the same progress in all 
that tends to its substantial progress." 

The principal event of the year 1872 was the meeting (July 4) of the Society of the Army of 
the Tennessee. Theie were 7,000 visitors from out of town, the lions of the occasion being Gen- 
erals Plnl Sheridan. Belknap (then secretary of war). Pope, and Xoyes (then governcn- of Ohio). 






y 



■;..«T^ 




t 



THE CAPITOL, IN JIIDWIXTER 

Vh-w taken Innii riom-cr Hlock, alxmt lSI)ii-ii7. 

The large procession wa.s in charge of Col. William F. Vilas and nine aides. Yacht and rowing 
races were held in the afternoon, and tireworks concluded the exercises in the evening. In 1873 
over $300,000 was spent in the city for new buildings — the new High School being chief in the 
long category. 

The city assumed charge of the free library in May, 1875, being the first community in Wis- 
consin to take advantage of the State library law of 1872 allowing cities to tax themselves for the 
The i)ulilic maintenance of such institutions. ' In common with many other towns through- 

hlirary. out the country, Madison's first public circulating library was inaugurated by^an 

association called the Institute. This was organized April 8, 1854. Chancellor Lathrop, of the 

■ The Madison Public Lilirary was opened May 21, IsT.^. I<;au Claire came second, opening her lihrarv 
in the followiug October. ' " 



34 THE STOEY OF MADISON. 



State University, was tlie president, and tliere was a long list of subordinate oiKicers; a reading 
room was at first the cliief attraction, and a debate section and a lecture committee were other 
features. The Madison Institute was at first flourishing, but gradually — there being a lack of 
funds with which to purchase fresh books — the interest of the public waned, only to be revived 
when (he city undertook to conduct a librai_y under the general State library law, since which time 
it has been an unqualified success. The library now contains about 16,000 book.s. well selected, 
and accessible through an excellent card catalogue, and the reading room is well patronized. The 
yearly expen.se to the city is about #3,000. ' Madison is lilierally supplied with libraries. That 
of the State Historical Society contains 220,000 titles; the State (law) Library possesses nearly 
40,000, and that of the State University a like number. These great aggregations of books, open 
to public use, form one of the chief attractions of IMadison as a scholastic center. 

The centennial year (1.S76) was properly celebrated by ijeojile of Dane county, by exercises 
in the Capitol Park, Prof. S. H. Oarjjenter, of the State University, being the orator of the occa- 
PriucipaKvints *''^"- Julia Ward Howe (January 19), Henry AV'ard Beecher (February 22), 
of 1876-77. and liobert IngersoU (May 22), were the city's most distinguished visitors in 

1877; and February 17, Ole Bull, then a citizen of Madison, gave a concert for the benefit of the 
University art gallery. The last of the old-time taverns, the Lake House, was burned the 8th of 
April — it had been erected by Hank Carman in 1842. The first Science Hall, of the University, 
was Oldened on June 21. A tornado swept across the city on the 6th of July, doing much dam- 
age to trees and smoke stacks. August 21, the Lakeside Hotel (at what are now the Monona 
Lake Assembly grounds) was destroyed by fire. From August 22 to 24, occurred the first animal 
rowing regatta, on Lake Monona. 

In the spring of 1878, the use of the telephone was inaugurated in Madison. Upon the twenty- 
fourth of May, Dane county was visited from east to west by a cyclone, the central path of which 
passed through the town of Oregon, six miles south of Madison. The damage was 
serious, many families being rendered homeless; the sufferci-s were aided by pop- 
ular subscriptions of money and goods. President and Mrs. Hayes vLsited the city September 10, 
the President addressing the people at the State Fair grounds — Camp Eandall: many thousands 
of visitors thronged into the city from all parts of Southern Wisconsin. 

In 1870 (JIarch 29), the chief event was the gutting of the Fairchild building, by fire; dur- 
ing the course of the contlagration there was a terrific explosion, from gunpowder stored in the 

l)asement, .seventeen persons being injured. The construction of the summei- hotel 
Eventis of LSiii. _, ^t o • i ii • 

at Tonyawatha Springs was commenced this year. 

Charles Stewart Parnell and John Dillon, the leaders of the Iri.sh Land League, addressed an 
immense throng in the assembly chamber, at the Cajiitol, February 26, 1880. The general assem- 
bly of the Presbyterian church was held in Madison, May 20-31, of the same 
year, the attendance reijre.seuting all portions of the country. September 6 and 
7, the city was en fete to welcome General Grant, who spoke at the State Fair; it is probable that 
Madison was ne\er l)efore invaded by so many strangers. 

The year 1881 is notable because of the great snow storm of .Tauuary 20; and the opening of 

the first Wisconsin Sunday School Assembly (aftei^\ards styled ^Monona Lake 
Events of Issl-SH. , i , , i x i • i a i- .. 

Assembly), at Lakeside, August 2. 

In March and April, 1882, there was a small-pox scare, with four well-developed ca.ses. April 
27, bids lor the city water works system were opened; the pipes were tested September 19, anil 
the engine started at the pumping station December 2. 

' The public libriiriaiLs have been as follows: lS7u to July, 1S77, Miss Virginia ('. Rol)bius; .luly, 1S77, to 
July, 1878, MisK.Iennie M. Field; July, 1878, to July, ISTti, Mrs. Laura H. Feuliug; July, 1879, to July, 1884, 
Miss Ella A. Giles; July, 1884, to July, 1889, Miss Minnie M. Oakley; July, 1889, to May, 1893, Miss Sophie 
M. Lewis; May, 189.3, tn date, Miss Georgiana 11. Hough. 



MADISON SINCE THE WAE. 



35 



Free postal delivery was inaugurated in Madison, April J 6, 1883. TTpon the eighth of 
November, that year, the soutli wing of the Capitol, then in course of construetion. fell at noon, 
resulting in the death of eight workmen. 

Matthew Arnold (January 2.5) and Pere Hyacinthe (May 8) were the visiting lions of the 
year 1884. Upon the fifteenth of July, the National Educational Association opened its annual 
Events of 1884. ^^^^'^^ i" Madison, five thou.sand visitors being in attendance. In the course of 
tlie summer, .some alarm and considerable discomfort were occasioned by an 
epidemic among the fish of our lakes; dead fi.sh were washed ashore in huge winrows, and the 
city go\'ernment was obliged, during several weeks, to employ teamsters to cart them away for 
bni-ial. November 15, the first street cars, hauled by mules, made their trial trip. Upon the 
first of December, Science Hall was burned. 




MADISON IN WINTER 

I.ookiiiK down Wisconsin Avenue towards the Capitol, abmit 1895. 

The old Burrows Opera House, which for many years liad been the city's playhousi^ was 
condemned and clo.sed January 8, 1885, and for five yeai'S thereafter our people were restricted 

Events of ]8S,^-8(i. ^"^ ^^^ "^^ "^ ''^"''"^'' ^''"- '^"'^ •'^' Madison was visited by a destructive 
' ■ tornado, declared by newspapers to be the "most destructive ever experienced 
in the place. ' ' A distinguished visitor of the year (September 18) was Hinrich Baron Berlepsch, 
of Diesden, Germany, who came to iu^'estigate the agricultural resources of Wisconsin. 

Three men were killed and seven injured by the explosion of a boiler in the St. Paul round- 
house, at West Madi.sou station, January 22, 1886. The new Dane County court house was com- 
pleted in November of the same year; and in December, the first art loan exhibition was held — 
in the rooms of the Y. M. C. A. 

In 1887, Justin SlcCarthy (February 11), Pi-osident aud Mis. Clevelaud (October 7-10). Dr. 
Joseph Parkei', of London (November 10), and Charles Dickens, son of the great novelist (De- 



36 THE STORY OF MADISON. 



ceiiil)er 7 ). wore in the city. Tlio visit of Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland was to ( "ol. A\'illiaiii F. Yilas, then 
secretarv of the interior, and attracted to Madison large crowds of stranners: 

Events (if 1SS7-S!I. ' . ^, ■ r -/in • i 

it was made the occasion of considerable ceremonial. 
Beyond the visit here of Lieutenant Schwatka, the arctic explorer, upon Jhe fourth of 
December, there appears to have been little of importance recorded by the newspapers in ISSS. 
The city hospital constructed by Drs. Gill and Boyd was opened in tS89: and on Septendier 
21. the corner stone of Fuller's Opera House was laid. 

April 7, 1890, Fuller's Opera House was formally opened — it had cost about .^.so.OOO, and 

was iironounced one of the best of its size in the West; ten days later, Max O'Eell lectured there 

to a large audience. The monthly market day (chiefly for live-stock) was 

inaugurated in Madison, this year. September 27, the Congregational Church 

celebrated the liftietli anniversary of its oiganization. Speaker Thomas B. Eeed was here upon 

October 2!l. 

The jirineipal events of the year LS91 were the visit of Henry ]\I. Stanley (February 18), 
the laying of tlie corner-stone (July <>) of Christ Presbyterian Church — the old church on Wis- 
consin Avenue ha\ing been sold to the Masonic bodies for a temple — and the opening to sale of 
lots in Elmside addition. 

In 1892, Madison's principal progress was evinced in the mending of her ways: October 1, 

the street railway was first operated by electric cars; and two weeks later ( Octo- 
Eveiits oC is',):2-'.»:i. , ,^. ^. T> ' 1 • V 11 1 4. i-i li- 

ber 15) the Raymer drive was tormally opened to the public. 

The Masonic Temple was dedicated upon February 24, 1893; April 28, the University 
Heights C!o. was organized, for the purpo.se of platting and opening to sale lots in that new sub- 
urb; August 17-20, there was held here the annual meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science; September 2. Labor Day was first observed in Madison; during Sep- 
tember, a local electric fire-alarm system was inaugurated; and November I 7. file destroyed the 
principal building at Sacred Heart Academy (Dominican Sisters, Bdgewood Villa). 

The events of 1894 were: the opening of the University gymnasium, May 25; the annual 

meet of the Western Canoe Association, at Picnic Point, commencing July 10; the meeting of 

the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, October 10-13; 

and the dedication of Cornelia Vilas Guild Hall, connected with Grace (P. E. ) 

Church, November 15. 

In 1895, the city entertained (June 4-6) the national convention of the Modern AVoodmen 
of America, which attracted 20,000 visitors. From July 14 to August 4, there was held the 
first Catholic Summer Sclioul. which brought manj' distinguished Catholics from all parts of the 
United States. 

The Columbian Catholic Summer School was permanently located in Madison. August 6, 

1896. The political campaign brought to Madison several notable visitors — for the Republicans 

(September 23), Russell A. Alger, (ien. O. O. Howard, and Gen. D. E. Sickles; 

and for the (silver) Democrats (October 31 ), William J. Bryan, their candidate 

for the presidency. 

The opening of the Farwell di-ive, along the eastern shore of Lake Mendota, was one of the 
most satisfactory events nf 1.S97; another, was the continuation of the .street railway line to the 
siduu-b of Wingra Park, and to Forest Hill Cemetery. Dr. Nansen, the arctic explorer, lectured 
in the Uiiiveisity gymnasium (November 22) to a large audience. 

The year 1898 was notable as being the fiftieth since the admission of Wisconsin to the 
T'nion. The approval by the president, of the congressional act providing for admittance, bore 
date of May 29, 1848. As May 29, 1898, fell on Sunday, the anniversary was fittingly observed 



MADISON SINCE THE WAR. 



Evfiits of IsiiS. 



by local celebrations at several county seats throughout the State, on Saturday, the 28th. The 
first state officers (Nelson Dewey, governor) were sworn in at Madison, on June 7, 
1848; this being the actual date upou which the State of Wisconsin began busi- 
uess as such, it was, by legislative action, made the official anni\'ersary, and a legal holiday. 
The event was celebrated at Madi-son throughout the seventh, eighth, and ninth of June by 
appropriate literary and patriotic exercises, in the presence of a large crowd of visitors. 

April 28th, Madison bade a formal farewell to the Governor's Guard (Co. G., First Wiscon- 
sin Volunteers), who had enlisted for the vSpanish-American war; the newspapers described the 
crowd as ''the biggest turnout in the history of the city." The company on leaving Madison 




A (JLIJII'^K OF MAIN STKPIET 
From Tenncy Block, looking southeast; July, ISll.'i. 

numbered 84 men, but was subsequently recruited to 105, under the United States army require- 
ments. At first going to Camp Harvey, Milwaukee, the company left there May 20th for Camp 
Springfield (later, Cuba Libre), Jacksonville, Fla. The Fir.st Wisconsin was accounted one of 
the best drilled and equipped regiments in the volunteer service, but did not chance to be chosen 
to go to the front. The summer was therefore spent in camp, where Co. G. lost three men from 
typhoid fever. The company reached Madison on the return, September 10th, and were here 
mustered out on the twenty -seventh of the following month. 

An explosion in the round-house of the Northwestern railway yards occurred January 24th, 
three men being killed and two badly hurt. On the 19th and 20th of February, Madison experi- 
enced the hea\iest fall of snow since the great storm of 1881. The most notable visitor of the 



38 



THE STOKY OF :MADIS0X. 



year was Joaquin Miller, the "poet of the Sierras," who lectured at the Congregational Church 
on the ninth of December. 

The State census of 1895 revealed the presence here of a i^opulatiou of 15,590. If the num- 
Raiidom notes on ^^^' "^^ '^®^' liouses built since then, and other evidences of growth, are to be 
Madison iu 1S99. taken as criterions, it is fair to assume that at the present time Madison contains 
about 20,000 souls.' 




WINTER SCENE ON LANGDON STREET 
From corner of X. Henry street, looking northeast, 1898-9!). 



The city school census in 1899 (persons between four and twenty years of age), was .5,.388, 
and the total enrollment in the public schools 2,893 — although the normal seating capacity of 



'The following table shows the growth of Madison since its foundation: 



1837 (April 1-5) - - - - 

18,S8 ------ 

1840 ------ 

1842 ------ 

1844 ------ 

1846 ------ 

1847 ------ 

1850 ------ 

1851 ------ 

1852 ------ 

1853 ------- 4,02!l 

Previous to ls55, the census was taken by local enumerators, for village purjwses. Commencing with 
that year, the count of years ending in 5 are the result of the State census, and that of years ending iu of 
the federal enumeration. 



fi 


1854 


1)2 


1855 


14G 


1860 


172 


1865 


216 


1870 


283 


1875 


(i32 


1880 


1,672 


ISHo 


2,30(> 


1890 


2,1173 


1895 



5,126 
6,,S03 
6,611 
0,191 
9,176 
10,093 
10,324 
12, (Mil 
13,426 
15,590 



MADISON SINCE THE WAR. 



39 



these schools is but 2, 717. The school property is valued at $225,000; the number of teachers 
employed is 61, and the amount spent in the last fiscal year, for running expenses of schools, 
exclusive of new buildings, was about $16,000. ^ 

The ijrincipal local events of 1899 have been as follows: January 11, tlu^ Fourtli Ward 
school building was partially destroyed by fire. January 25, Mrs. Caroline Wheeler, said to 
have been the second white woman in ^Madison, died at Wauwatosa. February 5-12, Francis 
Murphy, the famous temperance agitator, was in the city. February 11, Darwin Clai'k, the old- 
est pioneer in Madison, died. February 16, William J. Brj^an spoke in the University Gymna- 
sium. .Vpril 1, Silas U. Pinney, of the State supreme court, died. April 5, James Conklin & 
Sons" barn on the shore of Lake Mendota, foot of North Hamilton street, was destroyed by fire, 
sixteen horses being lost. July 22, Mgr. Martinelli, the apostolic delegate'of the Eoman Cath- 




SOJIE MADISON' HO-MKS 
A glimpse of (iilraaii street, fn)m corner of N. Pinckney street, 1899. Executive Residence, tbird liouse down, on left side. 

olic Church to the United States, visited the Columbian Catholic Summer School in INIadison. 
July 26, Murat Halstead spoke on Aguinaldo, at the Monona Lake Assembly. October 16, 
President William McKinley, en route from Sioux City, Iowa, to Milwaukee, stopped in Madi- 
son and spoke for ten minutes from the east steps of the Capitol, to about 6,000 jjeople; the Pres- 
ident was accompanied by Lyman J. Gage, secretary of state, Elihu B. Root, secretary of war, 
John D. Long, secretary of the navy, and Attorney General Griggs. October 20, Mrs. Roseline 
Peck, the first white woman to settle in Madison, died at her home in Baraboo. 



The Madison of today is far different in appearance from that of twenty, or even fifteen, years 
ago. Not only has there been considerable growth, but the town has quite lost its former village 



'It is recorded in Thwaites's Historical Hketch of Public Scliooh of Madixon, p. (12, that in 18K6 tlie 
number of teachers was .SS, salary paid them ?il7,902..57, eurollnient "nearly 2,000," and value of sehool 
property " about §100,000 " — official figures, as are those for 1839, in tlie text above. 




JIADISOX'S SKY-I.IXE 
As seen fri)in Turville's Beach, Lake Monona, 1899. 



MADISON SIXCE THE WAR. 



41 



aspect; domestic architecture, which up to ISSO was severely simple, often crude, has developed 
to a stage quite equal to that found in cities of greater pretensions; the public and commercial 
buildings erected in late years are much superior to those of the olden time; the "modern con- 
veniences" of the age — city water and sewerage, gas and electric light, telephones, etc. — are 
now provided for in most of the old houses and practically all of the new; private carriages are 
numerous, where formerly they were rare; electric street cars render intercommunication easy 
between the most distant parts of the city; building sites are no longer restricted to the high 
land, which is practically all taken up — the lowlands, not long ago thought forever doomed to 
rushes and frogs, are now being rapidly filled and settled upon; and there are "suburbs" enough 
to satisfy a town of five times the size of ours. lu many directions, our people have taken upon 
themselves metropolitan ways; the homes of the city are well furnished — many of them luxuri- 
antly; the shops, far more enterprising than of old, deal freely in goods which even a decade 
ago would have been thought impossible for this market, and advertise with a freedom welcome 
to the newspaper offices; and there is in general vogue a style and manner of living and dress 
quite foreign to the Madisonians of the '70's and early 80' s. 

All this has been accomplished so gradually as to be almost imperceptible, for Madison has 
in no sense been a "boom" town; but it has nevertheless come, and is a matter of comment 
among strangers who have known the city in earlier days. In a measure, of course, this is not 
peculiar to Madison alone — it is but a reflex of what has been happening the country over; since 
the War of Secession, the people of the United Slates have been fast becoming less provincial iu 
hal)its of life and thought. 

If we sto)) to inquire what it is that makes Madison grow — slowly, but surely and solidly — 
we shall find that the chief causes are three iu number: (1 ) the rapid strides of the State Uni- 
versity, which in twenty years has grown over 400 per cent; (2 ) the natural growth of the resi- 
dent official class — federal, State, and county — keeping pace with the lusty development of the 
commonwealth: (3) the railroad interests, which ai-e considerable, now that we have lines reach- 
ing out to all the cardinal points of the compass, and a considerable transfei' and wholesale busi- 
ness centered here. Madison's manufactories have never developed to the extent long lioped 
for — although what factories we have, are of considerable importance to the town. 

In short, Madison came into being because its site was selected for the capital, and the city 
can still say that her present and future largely depend upon her position as such. Time was, 
when this status. was in serious danger; but it may safely be predicted that, with the millions here 
invested by the Commonwealth in the University and other public buildings — all of which woidd 
have to be rebuilt elsewhere, were the Capitol removed — Madison will ever continue to be the 
seat of State government, the political as well as the educational center of Wisconsin. 




TOWN AND (JOWX 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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016 091 880 9 < 



